Disney Supernaturals: The Mal house
by lapierredx01
Summary: Several disney teens have been sent to the Mal house, a home for troubled teens. Where they have all been told that they have some sort of mental illness, little do they know that they each have supernatural powers and that the staff at Mal house want to use it against them. Can they all escape? WARNING: character death
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ariel stared at her father through the thick sound-proof glass window, he was talking to a tall woman with cropped black hair, wearing dress pants and a tie. Ariel was sitting in the waiting room on the other side of the glass, impatiently playing with her thumbs, waiting for the awkward goodbyes she'd eventually have to give her father.

At first he had tried to convince her that the place she would be heading wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a camp for teens. But even naïve little Ariel had seen straight through that lie. She was here because she was crazy, or at least people thought she was. She remembered how at first her father had shook it off as a child playing pretend, normal for anyone the ages of 7 or 8, but Ariel _wasn't _playing pretend. She knew what she saw, every time her legs even touched salt water. Of course no one would believe her, how could she have been so stupid to let her father know about her… _condition. _

Finally after what felt like ages, her father came out, followed by the tall woman. Her father gave her a look of pity and sympathy.

"Don't worry Ariel, the month will be up before you know it, I only want what's best for you." He said with a sad smile. Ariel simply crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head the other way, showing him that she didn't care how much he apologized or reasoned with her, things were never going to be the same. Her father, the one she had always counted on, the one who was always there for her, had agreed to have his youngest daughter sent away to a home for troubled teens, practically a mental asylum! They tried sugar-coating the fact that they were pretty much prisoners here by giving the place a sweet and innocent name: "The Mal house". It was engraved in fancy cursive writing on the outside door.

Her father sighed and whispered for a few moments with the tall woman, before finally turning back to Ariel.

"I love you Ariel." He said softly as he headed back to the exit, he turned once more before leaving, perhaps hoping for a response, before finally he left. The tall woman then stepped forwards and Ariel had a better view of her. She had, along with her hair, dark pencil thin eyebrows. As well as high cheek bones and ruby red lips that curved into an unnatural smile.

"Hello, you must be Ariel. I'm Mistress Maleficent, head administrator and owner of Mal House, but you should under any circumstances address me as 'Mistress ' or 'ma'am' understood?" she spoke sharply with fake politeness. Ariel mumbled something like: "Yes ma'am" as she stared at her toes.

"Very well. Now I would be delighted to show you around and introduce you to the rules and your schedule myself, however I'm afraid another more urgent matter requires my attention. I will let your new roommate Belle show you around, now come with me." Mistress Maleficent led Ariel down a hallway and then up some stairs. "This is the girls corridor, the other set of stairs leads to the boys corridor which is off limits after dark, are we clear?" Ariel faintly nodded. Mistress Maleficent then led Ariel to the end of the hallway and knocked on a door numbered '201' before opening it. Behind the door was a thin girl with light brown hair pulled into a low ponytail with a bow, she seemed to be reading the book 'Romeo and Julliet'. Mistress Maleficent cleared her throat, but it seemed to go unnoticed by the brunette. "Belle Chevalier, put that book down immediately or I shall have it burned!" she snapped impatiently. The girl looked up, inspecting Ariel with curious hazel eyes.

"Yes, Mistress Maleficent?" she asked politely before drawing her eyes back to her book.

"As you can see we have a new teenager with us, her name is Ariel and she will be your new roommate. I shall expect you to show her around and teach her all of the rules here. Understood?" Mistress Maleficent said with a hint of malice in her voice.

"Yes ma'am," Belle said with a note of sarcasm.

"Don't use that tone with me Miss Chevalier, supper is at 4:30, don't be late!" Mistress Maleficent warned as she left Belle and Ariel alone in the room. Belle finally put her book down and stared at Ariel from head to toe, inspecting the tiniest details with squinted eyes.

"You don't _seem _crazy…" the brunette started. Ariel looked down at the floor, embarrassed, and twiddled with a few strands of hair. Belle's face softened, noticing the expression of the other girl.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I'm Belle by the way." She gave her a small smile.

"I'm Ariel," she said timidly. Belle was about to go back to reading her book when Ariel spoke up again.

"umm.. if it doesn't bother you too much, do you think you could show me around?" Belle gave her a cheeky smile. "Sure." _Wow for a troubled teen she doesn't seem so…troubled. _Ariel said to herself mentally. In fact Belle seemed exactly the opposite. She seemed like 'the girl next door' or one of those average kids at school, _normal_. Of course Ariel knew something had to be wrong with her, otherwise she wouldn't have been sent here, but the more she and Ariel talked, the more Ariel felt there must have been a mistake sending the totally normal teenage brunette to a mental home.

"…Ok so this is the girl's corridor, there are 9 girls here right now and 7 boys. In the room across from us, 202, is Ella, Snow and Aurora; next to them, 203, is Meg and Jasmine. The first door on the left, 206, is Rapunzel, apparently she's really emotionally instable so she has to be alone. And finally the door at the end of the hall, 200, is for Esmeralda. She seems pretty normal to me, but the nurses don't trust her alone with anyone." Ariel absent-mindedly nodded while trying to remember who-slept-where.

Belle led Ariel out of the hallway and down the stairs to the kitchen, it looked like an average kitchen would, almost like it was _too _normal. Attached to the kitchen was a dining room with two long, polished mahogany tables that looked like they were meant for royalty. Belle explained that the kitchen was off limits except during meal times or snack, but that mostly everyone had snuck in there at one point or another.

The next room was a living room with a large flat-screen and a stack of board games, along with two bean bag chairs, a love-seat and a long sofa. There were 5 people in the room, 2 boys and a girl were playing the x-box and another two girls were just sitting in the bean-bag chairs talking. Belle explained that the girl playing the x-box was Esmeralda and the boys she was playing with were Phoebus and Flynn. The girl, Esmeralda, had long thick glossy black curls, tan skin and enchanting emerald eyes that seemed to stun Ariel as she stared at her from across the room, the boys that she was playing with were both really handsome, one had dirty blond hair with a slight stubble and a cheeky smile and the other had brown hair with a stubble and more of a flirtatious smile. Belle explained that Phoebus, the blond, was twins with Ella, who was sitting on one of the bean-bag chairs with her friend Snow. The first one to notice them was Esmeralda, she immediately dropped the game controller and ran up to them like an excited little puppy

"Hey, are you new here?" she asked happily. Ariel nodded with a polite smile on her face.

"What's your name?" Esmeralda asked again with the same excitement in her eyes.

"Ariel," she said and then let out a small giggle, Esmeralda noticed this and then changed her demeanor.

"I'm sorry, I'm usually not like this, I-"

"Hey what's going on down here, I try to finish some of Mrs. Porter's already-due homework assignments, and I get interrupted by Esme's yapping!" Ariel looked over to see a tan boy with dark hair leaning against the doorway. Esmeralda walked over to him and hit him in the gut as he burst out laughing.

"Oh shut up Aladdin! I _always _get excited when a new person comes, even when…" Esmeralda's voice trailed off and she tilted her head to the side.

"Quiet! I hear Mistress Maleficent coming!" she whispered loudly. Ariel gave a look to Belle saying: _What does she mean she can hear Mistress Maleficent coming? _As far as Ariel could tell there was no noise at all, except the teens chatting. Belle mouthed 'later' and that was that. To Ariel's surprise, seconds later Mistress Maleficent walked through the door. She scanned each of us with what looked like a death glare, before stopping it at Snow, who was still seated on the bean-bag chair.

"It's time for your 4:00 appointment with Dr. Frollo." She said unmoving her gaze from the petite girl with short curly black hair. Snow wordlessly stood up and walked out of the living room, Mistress Maleficent followed. There was an eerie silence until finally Esmeralda spoke.

"She's gone."

"We'll see you guys at dinner but right now I'm supposed to show Ariel the rest of the house," Belle said politely, but it sounded more like an excuse.

"Alright, how about I come with y-" one glare from Belle made Esmeralda shut up, it seemed she understood why Belle wanted some time with Ariel alone.

Belle led Ariel out of the living room into a long hallway with several doors.

" This is the main corridor, it has our classroom, a washroom, Dr. Frollo's office, Mistress Maleficent's office and the nurses room," she said, pointing out each of the doors. "That one leads to the basement," she was pointing at a door that looked slightly different than the rest, instead of a regular door knob, it had one of the old-fashioned ones that could only be opened with a thick metal key.

"Why is it locked?" Ariel couldn't help but blurt out with curiosity.

"We're only a loud down there when we have to do laundry, they don't want us snooping," Belle explained.

" but wouldn't we be more likely to snoop if it was locked?" the red-head said with a mischievous smile. Belle sighed.

"I don't know, but whatever's down there, they sure don't want _us _to see it." Belle led Ariel down the hallway.

"This," she said. "Is where most of us spend our time." Belle opened the doors to reveal a large room filled with games like foose-ball, ping pong, air hockey, pinball and darts. Two boys were in the room, both playing darts. One was a red-head, but not like Ariel's bright red, his was more of an orange. He had a muscular build and a cocky smile, but it turned into a nervous one as soon as he saw the girls. The other boy was the one who caught Ariel's attention, he was absolutely dazzling. He had wavy black hair and stunning ocean blue eyes that were still captivated by the game. There was an Asian nurse standing in the corner who didn't look like she was that much older than Ariel was. Ariel assumed the nurse had been assigned this room to supervise, just in case either of the boys accidentally went 'psycho'.

Suddenly Ariel felt slightly dizzy and had to stare at the dark haired boy to keep her focus. This had been happening a lot lately, she would get sudden dizziness spells and would feel fine minutes later. Normally it was due to lack of water. She found that with her condition, she needed to have at least 12 glasses of water a day, normally by 4:00 she would have had at least 8, but being so anxious this morning she only drank 2.

Ariel snapped out of her gaze as she felt Belle pulling at her sleeve.

"Come on, we better go. It's supper time and we don't want to be late." She said while ushering Ariel to the door. Ariel was about to tell her that they should probably warn the boys, but to her surprise the entire room was empty except for the two girls.

"Time for you to meet everyone," Belle gave her an encouraging smile. Ariel let out a nervous laugh as she couldn't help but think: _well this should be good._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Meg stared at the four-padded walls that surrounded her. At the moment she was in what Mistress Maleficent would call a time out. Earlier that day she had apparently had an 'unnecessary outburst'. She supposed there was some truth behind the matter, but wouldn't you be mad too if you found out you had to stay in this joint for another month? Meg was supposed to get out of the Mal house on September 17th, which was in three days' time, however this morning she had been informed by Mistress Maleficent that she would be spending an extra month locked up in this place. By now the anger, frustration and utter disappointment had subsided, now she was just pissed off.

Meg's parents had sent her here a little over a month ago because they thought she worshiped Satan, which wasn't true at all. Meg had a gift and she knew it, sometimes she could hear voices, but the voices weren't coming from inside her head, they were coming from around her, in tiny little whispers that tickled her ear. Sometimes she would accidentally bump into someone but then fall right through them and land in a heap on the floor, never even feeling a brush of their arm. Meg of course had done her research about spirits, demons and ghosts and such, that's probably where her parents got the idea that she worshiped Satan. Meg had obviously considered that maybe she was actually crazy and was obsessed with Satan and the after-life, but her own mind was telling her that it was something more than that, something so dark that she couldn't even tell her parents about; She could speak to the dead. Unfortunately, Mistress Maleficent, Mr. Jafar and Dr. Frollo had done everything and anything to make sure that Meg was aware of the consequences if she admitted this out loud, even to herself. Stupidly, Meg had already told them at the beginning that she thought she could see ghosts. They had told her that at the moment she was only in the Mal house because she worshiped Satan, but if she started blabbering about how she could hear voices and see 'ghosts' then they would have to diagnose her as a schizophrenic. _Like Esmeralda._ Meg immediately thought. Just like Meg, Esmeralda was aware that she was special, but unlike Meg, Esmeralda was unwilling to keep her mouth shut, even after numerous threats from the staff. So the only way they could keep the secret from getting out was to diagnose Esme with paranoia and schizophrenia. This all made perfect sense to Meg, but somehow she felt like she had missed something, like there was a part of her explanation that was wrong.

There was a soft creek as the door slowly opened, Meg was relieved when she saw that it was only Jasmine.

"Hey," she said with a half- smile. "Supper's ready." Upon hearing this, Meg's stomach instinctively growled.

"Great. Let's go."

**AT **the dinner table Meg sat next to Aurora and Jasmine, her only two friends at Mal house, except maybe Flynn, who was sitting at the other table next to Phoebus and Esmeralda. Despite all their similarities, Meg had never been fond of Esmeralda, it seemed like everything was always all about her and everyone was always defending her. Of course Meg wasn't the only one who felt this way, Aurora also had taken a particular dislike to Esme, and would show it by constantly saying snide comments directed towards her.

"Get any sleep yet?" Meg whispered to Aurora.

"Nope, haven't slept a wink since _they _brought me here." Aurora had been diagnosed with a severe case of insomnia, the fact was, she never slept. Ever since she was here Meg had never caught Aurora even take a nap, never.

Suddenly Dr. Frollo rushed in, clipboard in hand, followed by Dr. Facilier. He went over to the head of the table and whispered something to Mistress Maleficent that Meg couldn't quite make out, but apparently Esmeralda had, as she rose from her seat, nearly knocking her chair over.

"What?! But you can't do that, that's injustice…that's…that's…" she struggled to find the words. "That's murder!" she shouted as she slapped her hand palm-down onto the table. Everyone looked at her startled, this wasn't Esmeralda's first outburst and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but now everyone was pale and practically shaking in their seats because Esmeralda's ears, nose and eyes were never wrong. She often knew about stuff before anyone else did and nobody knew how. Meg suspected it had something to do with her 'mental illness'. Mistress Maleficent slowly shut her eyes and reopened them, trying to compose herself and keep her voice calm.

"Mr. Jafar could you please escort Miss Esmeralda to her room, she will stay there for the remainder of the night until she is calmed. Mr. Jafar walked towards Esmeralda, prepared to drag her to her room, but Esmeralda simply stood up and wordlessly headed towards the door. On her way though she paused and looked outside through the window, appearing to be deep in thought and then said: "Hmm that's funny, I never knew there was _snowfall _during Autumn," and then she continued out the door, followed by all the staff in the dining room. Meg was the one seated closest to the door and for a split second her eyes came into contact with Esmeralda's, her orbs were wide with urgency as though she was trying to tell Meg something without speaking, which Meg had a feeling was exactly what she _was _trying to do. As soon as the staff were gone everyone's eyes immediately darted to the window, and no surprise, it wasn't snowing.

"Looks like someone forgot to take her pills this morning," Aurora sneered with a sing-song tone to her voice. Meg saw out of the corner of her eye how Aladdin clenched his fists.

"How much longer is this going to go on? Why don't they just transfer her already! She's clearly a lunatic! Talking about murder! They'd never do anything like that!" Ella said exasperated, slamming down her fork.

"Oh look guys it's _snowing_ out!" Aurora imitated and giggled sarcastically.

"She didn't say it's snowing out, she said _snowfall._" Grumbled a low voice. Everyone looked to where the voice came from, surprisingly it came from Tarzan. Aurora just scoffed "Same thing!" she rolled her eyes. Tarzan looked at her like she was the stupidest person in the world.

"_Snow- Fall. _Is anyone else getting the connection?" he glowered at everyone. Suddenly it clicked. _Snow, Snowfall._ They were talking about Snow White! Esmeralda was cleverer than they gave her credit for.

"They were talking about me?" Snow spoke up for the first time since the conversation started.

"Oh don't listen to them Snow, sure the staff probably had mentioned you, but it was probably about your session earlier, definitely not associated with murder! Either Esmeralda heard wrong or she really is as crazy as they said she was." Ella said, putting her hands on Snow's shoulders trying to calm her friend down.

"So what now?" a meek voice said quietly. Meg looked around the room until she found who it belonged to. It was the new girl, she had firey red hair and sea-blue eyes, her expression was anxious, but also curious.

"_We _don't do anything." Meg cut in. By now quite a few people had left the dining room, such as Phoebus, Flynn, Belle, Rapunzel, Eric, Hercules and even Jasmine. This was too much nonsense for her to handle, and even if it wasn't nonsense. If Esmeralda wants to go play hero then let her, it's pointless getting everyone worked up over something so stupid. Maybe Esmeralda actually was crazy and Meg just wanted to believe that she wasn't; that there was someone else in this house who was also special.

Meg sighed. "Look, enough of this, no one's getting murdered. Let's all just chill." Everyone seemed to be a little bit calmer after Meg's 2 second speech, but she could still see the fear in Snow's dark brown eyes.

After a while everyone else began filing out of the dining room and heading either to the living room or the game room. Meg decided to head back to her bedroom so she could have a bit of time to herself, because clearly she needed it. She walked up the stairs heavily and lazily opened her door, then let herself flop onto her bed exhaustingly. She shut her eyes in frustration, to think in 3 days she could have been out of this hell-hole, but now she had to wait another month. So Meg just lied there, staring at the dull beige ceiling, wishing somehow she could be back in her cozy home, without a care in the world.

It wasn't long before her thoughts shifted to her deceased brother, Adam. He had only been 19 years old when he had apparently been shot on the side of the street. Meg felt tears swell up in her eyes, her and her brother had never been close, but he was still family and her only sibling. Adam had been a spoiled brat with anger issues and had always been able to get what he wanted from _Mother dearest. _Meg and Adam had the same Father, but different mothers, which made them half-siblings. Adam's mother was rich, always had been; so when their father left her, she could still manage on her own, even with a child. However Adam still had continued to live with Meg and her parents for half the time, despite the difference in wealth.

"Meg?"

Meg's head shot up as her eyes darted around the room, searching for the direction in which the voice came from.

"Hey, are you deaf or what?" An obnoxious male voice said as a hand waved rapidly in front of her face trying to get her attention, but it was _just_ the hand, floating mid-air, not attached to a body. Suddenly Meg remembered the ignorant voice and whispered, shocked "Adam?"

"Who else?" the voice snickered. Then a figure began to materialize in front of her and she recognized the far too familiar features of her disobedient brother.

"But…y-your de-"

"Dead? Yeah. Shame isn't it?" he laughed bitterly at his own sarcasm, but upon seeing her frightened gaze he stopped short.

"You know I'm a ghost _don't_ you?" he asked seriously.

"Y-yes, I- I mean yes I do," she stuttered, terrified. He looked at her expectantly, like he was waiting for something else.

"And if I'm a ghost, and you can see me, that means you can-?" he said in a chopped voice that sounded like he was talking to a 4 year old as he gestured for her to continue. For a moment it was like it wasn't her brother's _ghost_ in front of her, but just her brother.

"I already know I can talk to the dead, okay?" she snapped harshly. He eased up a bit and sat down cross-legged on the floor.

"Oh? And here I thought all this time you were just playing dumb." he fake gasped. Meg couldn't help but smirk and roll her eyes at her brother's dramatics. After that she found it a little bit easier to talk to him, but in the back of her mind she still felt the terrifying realisation that he was a ghost. They continued talking for a while about how Meg ended up in Mal house and what her suspicions were about the place, also a little bit about her new confirmed power to speak to the dead. Something else that she learned was that apparently Adam was a poltergeist.

"So if you're a poltergeist, shouldn't you be able to move stuff around?" Meg asked curiously as the question was nagging at her.

"Yeah," he mumbled. " but not until I actually have someone to protect," he shrugged.

"Do you pick? Or is it just anyone?"

"I guess I'll just know when it happens. That I'll feel some type of connection to the person, a duty to protect them at any cost." He said shaking his head and looking down. "I was my own poltergeist, you know. Back when I was living and I had 'anger issues'? That was really just my inner poltergeist acting up, I guess you could say." He gave a short laugh. Adam had always been a mischievous child and would always be getting in trouble for stuff he claimed he didn't do. Maybe that was just his own poltergeist all along.

"So, why did you come here in the first place?" Meg hesitated, scared the answer would be bad, like: 'Oh there's a zombie apocalypse in the after-life and we need your help to stop it.' or something else just as stupid that you see in the movies.

"Me? How should I know? You're the one who summoned me." He shrugged.

"What? No, I didn't even know for sure that I could see the dead until after you came!" Meg insisted, confused.

"You must have been thinking of me pretty hard then, that's the only other explanation I can think of. It's either I go to you, or you summon me. Not that'd I'd blame you though, who could resist all this?" He said sarcastically while flexing his muscles in his tight black t-shirt, flashing cockily a wide smile.

"Eww, gross! Don't even joke about that, you're my brother!" Meg said trying to sound as disgusted as possible, while giggling on the inside. Adam busted out laughing. Not long after that he began to fade, but just as the last glimpse of him was about to disappear he shouted out to her: "I'll see you later Alligator!" and with that he disappeared. Meg couldn't stop staring at the place he had been sitting. Finally she had at least proof for herself that she wasn't crazy. She sighed and lied back down, she wondered what time it was? How long had she been up here? Had anyone heard her? All these thoughts jumbled together and she soon felt a head-ache approaching, she tried to relax. It wouldn't be long until Jasmine or Aurora were up here and then she could get all that information from them. She obviously couldn't tell them about Adam or seeing ghosts, but they were still good people to talk to when she needed someone and right now was one of those times.

She heard footsteps climbing up the stairs and realized she wouldn't have as much alone time as she hoped. She closed her eyes and then thought of Adam and their conversation, she then reopened them and mumbled almost inaudibly, "_See you later Alligator,"_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Quasimodo sat alone in the north tower of the Mal house, quietly carving figurines of the patients he sometimes seen. No one except the staff knew he was up there, or that he existed, and no one else ever would. His uncle would sometimes visit him, but other than that he was always alone. His room had several windows, one that out looked the yard, where he could see a face he recognized every now and then, and another window at the opposite side, where he could see the most beautiful sunset imaginable. He also had quite a few books, along with pencil and paper and a writing desk, but those weren't his hobbies, his favorite thing to do in the tower was to carve little figures of the people he had at one point seen. He had a very good memory and could capture someone's facial features and what they were wearing even if he only had seen them once.

Today Quasimodo was in a happy mood because it was Saturday, one of the days where everyone would be out in the yard because there were no sessions or classes. It was also one of the days his uncle would visit him. Quasimodo had a _different _relationship with his uncle, Quasi's parents had died in a car crash when he was only a baby and Dr. Frollo had been the only relative from either sides of the family that would take him in, but Quasimodo had never considered his uncle as a fatherly figure or even as an actual family member, it was more like master and servant. Dr. Frollo had worked with the Mal house his entire life after already working in the judicial department, so when baby Quasimodo came along, he thought of nothing better to do than to simply raise him in the building as well, especially considering the young boy's appearance.

Quasimodo had a deformity to him that would make people stare and gawk at him in disgust and fear, at least according to his uncle. Quasi had a lump on top of his already burly back and muscular form, but the deformity hadn't simply stopped at his hunched back, it had continued to his facial features as well. He had extra skin just above one of his eyes that gave his olive orbs an over exaggeratingly tired and droopy look, it also seemed that there were parts of his teeth that had been chipped or just simply jutted out. To top of his look, the boy had a head full of meshy red hair that hung in his face, sometimes sticking to his forehead due to the humidity.

Quasimodo was the only teenager in the building who wasn't diagnosed with a mental illness, at least that's what his uncle had informed him. That was one of the main reasons Quasi never wanted to leave the north tower, all the people downstairs were sure to be crazed lunatics who would humiliate him in any way possible because of his ugliness. And yet he sometimes wanted to venture outside of his small room and loft and meet the people whose faces he had already seen so many times before, but he knew his uncle would never allow it, Quasimodo was a monster and had to hide himself from the rest of the world.

The sharp creek of the door being opened was enough for Quasimodo to Snap out of the glazed state he had been in.

"Good morning, Quasimodo," the sound of his uncle's deep baritone rang through his ears.

"G-Good morning, uncle." He stuttered nervously. He couldn't help it, no matter how many times his uncle had visited, it always made him anxious that he would screw something up and be beaten again. The first time it had happened was when he was only a little over the age of 10.

"_Quasimodo, please do explain what you were doing up on the roof!" his uncle's usually calm demeanor was slipping._

"_I-I was…" the young boy gulped. "I was trying to get a b-better view of the sunset, u-uncle Claude-I mean Sir."_

"_And you thought it befitting to climb to the roof, after I specifically told you not to?! You could have fallen, boy, and broken your neck, or worse gotten stuck up there for the remainder of the day until someone noticed you!" his uncle's voice was getting louder and louder until, finally, he lashed out and backhanded his nephew across the face. Quasimodo stared up at his uncle, dumbstruck. He slowly raised his hand to where his uncle had hit, and winced. He drew his hand back and was shocked to find that there was blood from his uncle's sharp metal rings that had ripped through his skin._

"_I'm sorry uncle, I will never disobey you again." The boy said in a far less nervous voice than before, but far more sorrowful._

"_You had better be certain you don't, for I won't be so merciful the next time you allow yourself such disobedience. Remember Quasimodo, God is always watching, you had better be thankful that I, as a former provincial judge in religion, can give you the forgiveness you so desire, for had it been up to another member of the faculty, they surely would have sent you to rot in the flames of an eternal hellfire."_

Quasimodo still remembered his uncle's lecture today, and vowed never to disobey him again, because even though he was lonely, this loft _was _his freedom, his security, his sanctuary.

**Esmeralda was **in the middle of continuously banging her head on the wall, when the door opened.

"Mistress Maleficent said you're allowed to come down now," Esmeralda turned her throbbing head to see that it was a girl with hip-length golden blonde hair and bright green eyes, much similar to her own. It was Rapunzel, still in her lavender, pink striped night dress. Rapunzel was one of Esmeralda's only true friends at Mal house. Sure, the boys were fun to hang out with every now and then, but they were never people she could trust with secrets or personal matters. Rapunzel was perfect for that job, she was a little naïve and a bit too innocent for Esmeralda's liking, but she was a great listener and often had stories of her own to tell Esmeralda.

"Finally, it's so boring up here! Do you want to sit and talk for a bit first?" she asked hopingly. Rapunzel nodded and sat down, brushing her hair out of the way.

"Did you get any more flash-backs?" Esmeralda asked the blonde.

"No. It's only when something that's said or done triggers it. That's why I'm not allowed to be downstairs during meal times anymore, because I always get a 'déjà-vu' feeling, and then you know what happens." Rapunzel said bitterly. It was true, Rapunzel had a bad repertoire for outbursts like Esmeralda, but they were never about the same thing. Esmeralda's were about things she had either heard or seen, but Rapunzel's had always been about things she _remembered_, mostly little clips of flash-backs at the Mal house.

Rapunzel had been here longer than anyone, so it made sense that she remembered scenarios that occurred here, that no one else knew about, but the strange thing was that she couldn't remember anything specific. It was more like getting flash-backs from a previous life, that was why Rapunzel was diagnosed as having FMS, False Memory Syndrome. This meant she had a series of memories that never actually occurred, that were made up.

The only thing that scared Esmeralda was that most of Rapunzel's false memories were here at Mal house, in apparently a lab where they had all sorts of tools set out on a table, prepared to do _testing. _It sounded like something out of a horror film. The staff had told everyone of Rapunzel's syndrome, so that they wouldn't believe anything she said, the same way Mistress Maleficent had told everyone of Esmeralda's schizophrenia so that no one would believe her. All the patients thought Rapunzel was simply emotionally instable and that when she told people about her flash-backs that they were just made up, but people also thought that Esmeralda made up everything she had heard or had seen, when honestly she wasn't, so if the doctors were wrong about her, could they be wrong about Rapunzel as well?

"Have you heard or seen anything recently?" Rapunzel's quiet voice shook Esmeralda away from her thoughts.

"Yes actually. Yesterday during supper Frollo came rushing in with his assistant Facilier, he whispered something to Mistress Maleficent that no one else had heard except me. He said that they need to _dispose _of someone and that Snow White was the best choice." Esmeralda said glumly while remembering how no one believed her.

"Are you sure _dispose _didn't just mean that they just have too many people and they have to get rid of one of us by sending us back home?" Rapunzel asked naively. Esmeralda hesitated.

"It's not just that, he was also asking how to do it so no one would ask any questions, _including _her parents." Esmeralda also couldn't forget the look on Mistress Maleficent's face after her small out bust, she had been mortified that Esmeralda had heard what Dr. Frollo had said and had clearly been trying extra hard to keep her cool.

"That's bad. That's really…" Suddenly Rapunzel's eyes glazed over and Esmeralda knew that her friend was replaying one of her 'false' memories. The raven haired girl didn't know whether she should shake her friend out of the flash-back or if she should let it play on, but before she had to decide, Rapunzel was back. She was gasping and stood up, immediately leaning to the wall next to her, eyes widened in terror.

"What…what is it?" Esmeralda said, getting up to join her friend, trying to calm her down, but unsure of how to do it. Rapunzel gave Esmeralda a soft shove away, indicating she wanted her space.

"It's happening again! Oh my god, it's happening again!" she repeated through hysterics. The blonde was wearily stepping aimlessly to the left and to the right, dazed.

"What's happening again?!" Esmeralda tried to get through to her friend, trying to figure out any way to find out what was going on.

"We're all going to die! We'll all be dead! It's happening again!" she shrieked as she broke down in sobs on the floor. Esmeralda was panicking, what could she do? She wanted to receive some answers, but she couldn't control her friend long enough to get them.

"Run! Run! Before they get here!" the blonde screeched through tear-shedding eyes, but before Esmeralda could react, her bedroom door slammed open and there stood Mr. Jafar holding a needle. He glanced at Esmeralda and then towards Rapunzel before heading straight to the blonde. Not even aware of her actions, Esmeralda blocked his path, staring at him defiantly.

"Move out of the way, foolish girl!" he hissed while giving her a hard push into the dresser, knocking her out of the way. Esmeralda felt a warm trickle of blood at the back of her head.

"No! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me!" Rapunzel shouted as Jafar sedated her. She immediately fell limp on the floor as a few nurses came through the door carrying a stretcher, followed by Dr. Frollo and Mistress Maleficent. As the nurses carried Rapunzel out, Mistress Maleficent was staring at the fallen over dresser and the broken glass and then at Mr. Jafar. Meanwhile Dr. Frollo was staring directly at Esmeralda, taking on a look of spite as if it was all her fault.

"_What, _is the meaning of this?!" Mistress Maleficent's voice raised a threatening octave. Esmeralda was about to answer when she realised the question wasn't directed towards her, but for Mr. Jafar.

"She got in the way!" he said menacingly while glaring venomous darts at Esmeralda.

"Mr. Jafar, my office, _now. _Esmeralda you may need medical attention, I _suggest _you go to Dr. Frollo's office. And for goodness sakes! Someone clean up this mess!" Mistress Maleficent yelled to the staff behind her, who had also heard the amount of noise directing from the bedroom. Mr. Jafar continued glaring at Esmeralda until he followed Mistress Maleficent. Dr. Frollo then walked towards Esmeralda who was still in a heap on the ground.

"_Up,_" he said, his voice severe, abrupt and sharp. Esmeralda wordlessly stood up and stared at him with pure spite.

"Follow me." He said as he made his way to the door, not even checking to see if she was following, which begrudgingly she did. He led her down the stairs and along the main corridor, she couldn't help but notice that they had already passed the doctor's office and were now on the opposite side of the hall.

"Where are we go-"

"Shut up," he hissed impatiently as he literally began dragging her by the wrist further down the hall to a section where she, nor the other patients had ever been before.

"No, stop!" she shouted hoping to draw someone's attention and get him away from her. Just then he stopped in front of a door that said 'Study'. He opened the door and forcefully shoved her in, Esmeralda lost her balance and toppled to the floor with a loud thud. He slammed the door, and stared at her with granite eyes that were ignited with a blazing fire. She crawled backwards as far as she could until her back hit the opposite wall. He then took a metallic silver key from his pocket and locked the door. As he approached her, Esmeralda screamed.

**Hours later **Quasimodo was still carving his wooden figures. After his uncle's visit today and lunch, he had immediately gone back to his occupation, but he was soon interrupted by soft cries heard not too far away. He listened again and realised they were _feminine _cries, soft, but enough to break anyone's heart. He paused from his work, hoping the shrill noise would stop. But after realising it didn't , he wanted to see who was up here, so close that he could hear their incessant sobs.

He walked towards the door, the only major thing that prevented anyone from discovering him as it was painted to be camouflaged and hidden from the human eye. He pressed his ear up against the door and was surprised to hear that the crying had stopped, but he panicked as he heard footsteps, slowly becoming louder as they drew closer. The person must have been in the attic because the only set of stairs that led to the north tower came from there. The sound of footsteps became more distinct as the person started up the winding staircase that would eventually lead to Quasi's secret hideout.

_Closer, closer and then nothing._ The person who had been crying was directly in front of the door. Quasimodo backed up just in case it opened. He waited, hoping the intruder had decided it must be a dead end, but just then the door knob started to turn and Quasimodo realised he had nowhere to run. He panicked running about the loft looking for a hiding spot, unfortunately he found none. He was standing on the wide windowsill, about to climb to the roof when the door bust open. There, to his surprise stood a girl, she had long black curls, tan skin and large emerald eyes, widened with curiosity and red from her crying. Quasimodo was about to continue climbing, hoping she wouldn't notice him , when her eyes darted in his direction. He was expecting to see a look of disgust or repulsiveness cross her beautiful features, but saw nothing but suspicion which immediately turned to amazement as her eyes discovered the miniature diorama of the Mal house and all the little wooden figurines.

"Did you…did you make these?" the girl asked in awe, while examining the figure of one of the nurses. He gulped and looked around, just to make sure no one else had followed her.

"Y-Yes I… I did." He said unsure as to why she came up here. He had never seen her before in the yard, otherwise he surely would have recognized her. She again looked towards him.

"What's your name?" she asked in genuine curiosity.

"My…my name?" he stuttered incomprehensively. All his life his uncle had told him that if anyone were to meet him that they'd be disgusted and would humiliate him. Yet here stood a girl, surpassing beautiful and all she wanted to know was his name?

"Er.. uhmm.. Quasimodo?" he answered still unsure of why the girl was up here in the first place. The girl gave a soft laugh that made Quasimodo's heart melt.

"You're a talented person Quasimodo, do you live here?" she said giving him a smile. He finally hopped down from the windowsill and stood in front of her so that she could get a better look at him. She didn't even flinch. Quasimodo was surprised, he thought for sure that she would dart to the door as soon as she saw how hideous he was.

"Yes…my uncle brought me here when I was only a baby, he didn't want other people to see me, I'm a monster you know." He said looking down disappointed, mostly in himself.

"Monster?" she looked utterly shocked. Quasi nodded sadly.

"Just look at me."

"And your uncle told you that?" the raven haired girl asked still incomprehensive to the whole situation. Quasi once again nodded.

"Well I don't think you're a monster at all, I think your _uncle _is the one who's the monster." She said, her tone final.

"Oh but you can't say that, uncle Frollo raised me, he took me in when no one else would." He saw how the girl shut her eyes sharply in a repulsive manner at the mentioning of his uncle's name and for a moment Quasi thought that it was because of him that the girl had been crying earlier. But then her expression returned to normal and the girl looked at him as if trying to figure something out.

"How could a cruel man raise such a nice boy like you?" Quasi was certain that he was blushing. This girl hardly even knew him and yet she was treating him with such kindness that he hadn't experienced from anyone before. Quasi looked around for a moment while trying to avoid making eye contact as if he were about to ask something deeply embarrassing and personal.

"umm.. what's your name?" he said shyly. The girl smiled in return.

"Esmeralda."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Aladdin awoke to Phoebus' obnoxious snoring. Who was, to his annoyance, Aladdin's only roommate. Phoebus was the epitome of the type of person Aladdin hated throughout high school, he was a womanizer, a jerk and he always spoke in bravado like he was some type of comedian who could never keep his cheesy wit intact. The only reason Aladdin ever put up with any of Phoebus' crap was for Esme, otherwise he would have kicked his ass a while ago. He knew Esmeralda had developed some sort of a crush-like thing for Phoebus, even if it was in a mental home. Aladdin had quickly taken on the father-protecting-daughter role, since he already saw Esmeralda like a younger sister and he wasn't about to let some womanizing ass-hole break her heart. What bothered Aladdin the most was that Phoebus wasn't even in Mal house because he had a mental illness, he was here because his twin, Ella, was. So unlike Aladdin and Esme who had actually been put in Mal house for a reason, he was just there, not having to take medication or abide by the rules that the rest of them _had _to follow.

Suddenly he heard a soft knock at the door, he glanced quickly at the clock, it was only 2:30 am. Only one person in the world would be rebellious enough to take that risk in the middle of the night. And Aladdin's suspicion was soon confirmed as Phoebus arose groggily from his sleep, unaware that Aladdin was also awake, and answered the door. _They probably have their own secret knock._ Aladdin thought bitterly. There was no doubt in his mind that it was Esme at the door, probably wanting to tell her _Romeo _about something that had happened yesterday, that clearly couldn't wait for a later time in the morning. It wasn't that Aladdin was jealous of Phoebus' relationship with Esmeralda, he just wished she'd tell him all the stuff she tells Phoebus.

Aladdin lied awake for the next hour, Phoebus hadn't returned yet and frankly Aladdin suspected they were doing more than talking. _Don't be ridiculous Aladdin, Esmeralda would never do anything like that, especially not in this house. _He reminded himself. His stomach growled and just now he realised how hungry he was. He decided to go downstairs and sneak a snack, it wasn't like Phoebus was returning any time soon.

Aladdin checked the hallway briefly before heading towards the kitchen. He opened the fridge and no surprise, there was nothing but a bunch of healthy junk. He was about to pick out an apple when a creak from the girls staircase made his head shoot up, nearly hitting it on the edge of the fridge. He was expecting either Phoebus, coming back down from Esmeralda's room or one of the staff. Honestly, he didn't know which one he would prefer. Seconds later, appeared a girl with long, glossy, wavy black hair, wearing a teal night gown. Upon closer examination Aladdin saw that it was Jasmine, the goody two-shoes at Mal house. She was never late for sessions, was always in bed at least a half hour before lights-out and always took her medication, even on days she didn't have to. And yet she still had been in this house longer than Aladdin and he couldn't help but wonder why. She took a step towards the kitchen before noticing Aladdin, her almond eyes went wide for a moment before returning to their usual calmness.

"I was just going to the washroom," she said in an innocent, quiet yet confident and persistent voice, as though she had already planned on what to say in case someone caught her. Aladdin knew she was lying, he didn't know how, but he knew. He was always able to identify whether someone was lying or not, it was a gift, had said his father Cassim, who was now who knows where since he dumped Aladdin here and fled.

"Well, well, well _Princess Jasmine, _finally breaking a rule," Aladdin couldn't help but tease.

"I told you, I was going to the _washroom._" She said, this time with an edge to her voice, clenching her jaw through gritted teeth.

"Okay, okay, I get it. You were going to the 'washroom', right? So tell me, who's the lucky guy?" Aladdin couldn't resist, it was all just too ironic, he didn't forget to use air quotations at the word 'washroom'. Jasmine gasped and took on a down-right murderous expression before she realised Aladdin was joking.

"Hilarious." She rolled her eyes. "So what are you going to do? Throw me to the wolves, when you're down here doing the same thing I was going to do?" she interrogated with a knowing look.

"Me? I would never. How could you accuse me of the blasphemy that is tattle-tailing?!" Aladdin feigned hurt. He saw how the corners of Jasmine's lips turned up into a sly smirk.

"So we're on the same page then," she reasoned.

"Depends on what that page is…" Aladdin countered. Jasmine just looked at him incomprehensively like he was crazy, which he probably was, flirting with the untouchable, off-limits teenager at Mal house. Aladdin grabbed an apple from the fridge, rolling it over his shoulder and down his arm before catching it and tossing it to her.

"Your apple, _Princess_" he said smoothly.

"Why thank you, kind _thief_," she replied with the same clever wit. She turned around with her apple in hand and began heading back towards the girl's corridor.

"Goodnight, Jasmine" Aladdin said, almost genuinely. She stopped in her tracks and turned her body to face him, with a half- smile on her face. Aladdin felt his palms getting sweaty, flirting with girls and teasing them was one thing, but actually being nice to them was another thing, a thing that made him a nervous wreck.

"Good night, Aladdin." She giggled at his sudden nervousness. She then proceeded up the stairs that led to her bedroom. Aladdin sighed when she was out of hearing range. _Wow._ Aladdin had always taken her to be the innocent, stuck up prude of Mal house, when in fact she was nearly the opposite. Sure, she was confident, but not stuck up and it certainly didn't look like she was unfamiliar with the fun game that is flirting. Aladdin was almost entertained at the way she countered his remarks. _Who'd have thought. _He returned his attention back to the still opened fridge. _Shit, I gave her the last apple!_

**Ariel sat** in 's office patiently, waiting for him to enter so that she could begin her first early morning session. Today she was going to find out her diagnosis, or at least whatever _diagnosis _ they made up.

"Hello, Ariel" he said curtly as he entered. He tried to animate his face with a smile, but it looked more like a monstrous grin that frightened Ariel.

"Hi" Ariel replied awkwardly. Seeing as the attempted smile wasn't doing anything, returned to his normal calm, cold, hard expression.

"After closer inspection of your file we have come to the conclusion that you suffer from clinical lycanthropy," Ariel looked at him quizzically. _Clinical lycanthropy? What the hell was that?_ Upon seeing her puzzling glare bit his tongue in order not to bark out at her for her stupidity.

"_Clinical lycanthropy_, is the mental illness in which someone _believes _that they are a fictional and/or supernatural species or creature. Ariel, it has come to our attention that your file implies that you believe that you are a _mermaid_." He said, almost in a mocking tone. Ariel felt tears threatening to fall, her file didn't _imply _anything, it was precisely that.

"Now, on ordinary circumstances, I would tell you that that is incredulous and _silly_, however you are new and these are no ordinary circumstances, it is quite normal for someone suffering from Clinical lycanthropy to believe such things." Ariel absent-mindedly nodded. All that she was thinking was _deny, deny, deny._ She couldn't give in to them and believe that she was actually crazy, she had to trust herself and her mind that she was completely sane.

"Very well, now I do believe it is time for breakfast. You are dismissed. I will be asking Mistress Maleficent to adjust your session schedule so that you can come here more often, _clinical lycanthropy_ is not to be taken lightly, Ariel." He said formally while escorting her to the door and literally slamming it as soon as she left the office.

**It was after breakfast **and they all had free time before lunch and classes. Ariel was in her bedroom with Belle, who was reading and half listening and talking to Ariel.

"I want to see other people's files," Ariel said suddenly. Belle's ears perked up at this, for that had been exactly what she had wanted to do when she first started at Mal house, but her eagerness soon turned to suspicion.

"Why?" she asked, raising an eyebrow curiously and putting down her Shakespeare novel. Ariel sighed.

"I want to know why other people are in here, to see how-"

"-crazy and dangerous we are?" Belle finished bitterly, even though that was exactly what she had wanted to know as well. Ariel nodded half-ashamed.

"Okay, I say we do it. But we'll only be able to get a few files, so who's files do you want to get? I already know what some of them are diagnosed as, so let's pick people neither of us know about" Belle said, now with her full attention on their conversation. Ariel was half-surprised that Belle had actually agreed with her, let alone that she wanted to help her.

"Hmmm… what about Esmeralda," Ariel said, thinking back to her little outburst a couple of days ago, Esmeralda certainly seemed crazy, not so much dangerous though.

"Schizophrenia and paranoia, apparently she thinks she sees and hears stuff when she actually doesn't."

"What about a few days ago when I first came here and she heard Mistress Maleficent coming, was that her paranoia? Or did she actually hear someone coming?" Ariel questioned. Belle hesitated.

"Esmeralda can sometimes see and hear stuff more than anyone else, the nurses tell us that she's crazy and that she makes it up, but most of the time she's actually right. Which makes me wonder if…"

"Maybe she isn't so crazy?" Ariel guessed. Belle nodded.

"I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but it's like she has super senses or something. You've met her, she doesn't actually _act _psycho," Belle answered.

"What about you? Why are you here?" Ariel asked, letting curiosity get the better or her. Belle looked down, embarrassed. Ariel was quick to jump in.

"You don't have to, if you don't want to. I mean, I guess I should probably tell you mine first. I have _clinical lycanthropy_, I think I'm a mermaid." Ariel said, giving a shy smile to Belle, hoping to encourage her. Belle sighed.

"I have fantasy prone personality, it means that I confuse fantasy with reality,"

"Do you though?" Ariel asked. Belle nodded.

"When I was little I used to read out loud to myself, and well, sometimes I thought…" Belle let out a short bitter laugh. "…I thought the characters from the books came to life and could actually interact and talk with the real world, of course my father took it as child's play and ignored my constant ramblings about the characters I had met. After seeing that he didn't believe me, I stopped reading out loud, seeing no point in it. But just last year I was reading out loud to a kindergarten class for volunteer work and well, I guess I thought I saw one of the characters from the book, so my dad sent me here. I haven't read out loud since." Belle said half-heartedly. Ariel gave her a half-smile.

"We're kind of the same, you think you _see_ characters from books and I think I _am_ one." Ariel said trying to lift the brunette's dampened mood. Belle returned the favor by giving her a whole-hearted smile.

"So who's files should we take?" Belle said, excited for the small adventure.

"How about…" Ariel started, thinking things over. "Flynn, Snow and Eric's." Ariel said, she thought she knew what most of the patients in the house were diagnosed as. She was pretty sure Ella was bi-polar and that Tarzan had social issues. And Meg had told her upfront that apparently she worshipped Satan. The reason Ariel had selected Flynn was because she already knew that Esme was a schizo and that Phoebus didn't have a mental illness, so she wanted to know what the third member of their trio was diagnosed as. She wanted to know what Snow had because of the whole incident that happened a couple of days ago, and to see if she was dangerous or not. And finally she wanted to see Eric's file because she might have the tiniest crush on him, and if he was dangerous in any way than they definitely wouldn't be able to have a relationship.

"Sounds good, I don't know what any of them are either." Belle said casually.

"So when and where do we get the files?" Ariel asked. Belle looked deep in thought for a moment.

"The files are in Mistress Maleficent's office. And since it's free-time right now there won't be any sessions, so it should be empty." Belle said, while still pondering the idea.

"So you mean we go right now? When anyone could see us?" Ariel panicked.

"It won't look as suspicious during the day-time. Plus I think I know someone who can help us get in," there was a short pause before Ariel asked,

"Who?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Phoebus was still processing the conversation he and Esmeralda had had in the middle of the night. She had told him all that had happened yesterday with Rapunzel and how afterwards they had dragged her out on a stretcher, but he felt like she was holding back something, like there was something else that had happened yesterday that she had purposely not mentioned.

Right now he was lying on the couch in the living room, watching some Paid Programming channel while waiting for free time to be over. Flynn was supposedly doing some last minute 'homework' before classes this afternoon, which Phoebus knew was total bullshit. And Esmeralda was- well actually, he didn't know. Normally at this time of day she'd be lounging around either in the game room or in the living room, but surprisingly, today she was in neither. He was just about to go upstairs to check if she was in her room when Belle and the new red-head came walking in, scanning the room before their eyes fell on Phoebus. Belle came over to the sofa and hesitated before sitting down, leaving the new girl, Ariel, still standing a few feet away.

"Phoebus, can we talk to you," Belle said, while looking around to make sure no one else had entered the room.

"Yeah, sure." Phoebus said as he flicked off the Tv.

Belle bit the corner of her lip, and lowered her tone as she whispered, "alone?"

If it had been anyone else Phoebus probably would have told them to bug off, but he had a certain amount of respect for Belle since they had gone to school together in elementary school before either of them had been sent here.

You see, growing up, Phoebus had always been the rich kid, the one with the new games, the cool clothes, the nicest car, add good-looks and a sense of humour to that mix and you have instant popularity. Somewhere along the line Phoebus had realised this and started hanging out with the 'cool' guys at school, unfortunately these guys were also the jerks and ass-holes. Let's just say that they weren't exactly the nicest to little book-worm Belle throughout her childhood. Honestly Phoebus had never really realized just how big of a jerk he must have been, until he came here. Sure he never actually intentionally bullied someone, but he never stopped it when he saw it happening either, he was always just a by-stander, too cowardly to step in when something got out of hand.

Now he saw Belle's pleading hazel eyes and he felt somewhat guilty for never stopping his 'friends' from ripping her books and stealing her homework. He looked down, unable to look in her eyes anymore.

"Sure. Follow me," he said earnestly as he got up from the couch and led Belle and Ariel to his room in the boy's corridor. His room was a mess, filled with all of Aladdin's junk. Empty soda cans were littered all across the floor, something brown and clumpy that looked like cake was behind the door, candy-bar wrappers were stuffed under both Phoebus and Aladdin's mattresses and sweaty t-shirts and hoodies were sprawled over two thirds of the room's square footage. Phoebus let out an embarrassed laugh,

"Make yourselves at home," he said half-sarcastically. Belle tried giving him a small smile before going to sit on Phoebus' bed while Ariel scrunched up her nose from the smell, not even trying to hide her disgust, and followed her friend.

"So what do you ladies need?" he asked while brushing Aladdin's half-eaten banana out of the way and sitting on his bed. This time Ariel was the one to answer.

"We want to get into Mistress Maleficent's office." She said in one breath. Phoebus looked questionably at Belle, but she didn't seem to notice him.

"Why?" he said, mainly directing the question towards the brunette.

"We want to get our hands on certain people's files," Belle answered.

"And you need me because…" Phoebus said, still not cluing in on why they wanted his help.

"You can get us in, I've seen it before. You're like the biggest suck up in the world, the nurses always listen to you," Belle said, looking at him accusingly.

"Okay, first of all, it's called a way with words, not 'suck up'. Secondly, why do you want these files in the first place?" Phoebus said, clearly with a note of suspicion.

"We have our reasons. Now are you going to help us or not?" Ariel spoke up. Phoebus looked over to her and then back to Belle, and just shook his head with a smile.

"Sure, why not, but you're also gonna need the key to the file drawer…" Phoebus grinned knowingly. Belle swore under her breath. "…fortunately for you ladies, I happen to know someone who can get it."

"**Please, Flynn!" **Phoebus nagged his friend who was copying off of Tarzan's left out homework, with Ariel and Belle standing at the doorway.

"No, no and no. I already told you I don't steal….much." Flynn refused while scribbling down some more answers.

"Oh come on, you stole that extra vanilla pudding cup just yesterday!" Phoebus persisted.

"I already told you, that wasn't me! I was craving vanilla pudding and bam! It appeared on the table next to me!" Flynn shouted, exasperated, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Mhmm…yeah, sure. That's why you're diagnosed as a kleptomaniac?" Phoebus rage whispered. Belle whispered: "check him off the list" to Ariel who nodded. Flynn just shrugged.

"I don't know, I just want something and it appears," Flynn snapped his fingers like he had an idea. "Kinda like voodoo!" he exclaimed while doing spirit fingers in Phoebus' face. Phoebus rolled his eyes at his friend's stupidity.

"Okay, okay. So let's say you really want this file cabinet key, could you get it?" Phoebus asked as if he was speaking to a child, who in reality was his best friend.

"I don't know, depends on my mood," he said, popping his shirt collar and flashing a cocky smile towards Ariel who just rolled her eyes, a small smirk sneaked up on Phoebus' face.

"Just focus on the key really hard and maybe you'll remember where you left it- I mean it'll appear." Phoebus said correcting himself for Flynn's sanity. Flynn nodded and started rubbing his fingers really hard on his temples, closing his eyes.

"I think I'm getting something guys…" he said as if he were getting a vision. Belle leant over to Phoebus and whispered, "Is he always like that?" Phoebus shook his head. "Nah, I think he just gets in denial when people accuse him of stealing. Unless you're talking about the fake charm and stupidity, then yeah, he's always like that." Phoebus chuckled.

Flynn's eyes flashed open and he gazed around the room with squinted eyes in fake seriousness. Then his eyes widened in pleasant surprise.

"Found it!" he grinned as he pointed to a small metallic key that had a tag that said: 'file cabinet'.

"Great, " Belle picked up the key from where it was on the ground. "Let's go," she said, dragging Phoebus and Ariel along with her as they exited the room.

"K. Your welcome guys! Like seriously it was no problem at all! Don't even mention it!That's just the nice person I am!" Flynn half-shouted out the door. "…and they're gone. Of course." Flynn shrugged and went back to Tarzan's homework.

**Downstairs **Phoebus, Belle and Ariel were eying Mistress Maleficent's office, waiting for a young nurse to walk by. Luckily the first nurse they saw was Mulan, who was actually only 17, a year younger than Phoebus.

"Okay guys, follow my lead," Phoebus said as he walked up to the nurse, leaving Ariel and Belle just a couple feet behind him.

"Excuse me," he started giving Mulan a warm smile.

"Yes?- Umm I mean…what is it Phoebus?" she asked nervously. Ariel was trying her hardest not to giggle while Belle scolded her by hitting her in the ribs with her elbow. Phoebus leant in closer to her.

"You see, my friend here is new, she's only 15, and well…" he looked to Ariel and then back at Mulan, "…she's having some _lady issues._" He whispered, but still loud enough for Ariel to here, she clenched her fists to keep herself from protesting, Belle mouthed to her, 'Trust him'. Ariel nodded and tried to act embarrassed and innocent . Mulan gave a sideways glance to Ariel and then looked down nervously, trying to hide her blush.

"Oh..umm I think there's supplies up in the-"

"-she already has what she need's, it's just the other washrooms are all occupied and well, we were hoping you could let us into Mistress Maleficent's office so she could use her washroom," Phoebus explained in a low tone of voice, so that any other staff nearby couldn't hear. _That clever son of a bitch._ Ariel thought. Mulan's blush was now wild as she looked hesitantly to Ariel and then nervously up to Phoebus.

"I really don't think I should be-"

"Please, for me? It's kind of an emergency," he cut her off, looking at her with pleading soft brown eyes that was enough to make any girl who didn't know any better's heart melt. He gave her a shy smile, not the flirtatious smile that Aladdin and Flynn always used when they flirted with girls, but the shy adorable smile that made girls think that the guy was just as nervous as they were.

"Well alright, just this once though," she sighed and pulled out a key from her pocket. "Just give it back to me later, be fast." She said as she handed Phoebus the key. He quickly turned it in the lock and let the three of them in before shutting the door.

"Okay quick, where's the file cabinet?" Phoebus said as soon as the door shut.

"Over there," Ariel said, pointing to the cabinet on the far side of the wall.

Belle pulled out the miniature key Flynn had gotten them and fumbled with it in the lock before opening the drawer. She was surprised to find it full of hundreds of names, some she recognized, some she didn't. She flipped through them before finding Eric's and Snow's files, she took out all the papers that were in them and handed them to Phoebus who folded them and stuffed them into his jacket pocket. She was about to shut the cabinet again when a certain name caught her eye, 'Rapunzel Or'. They already knew what Rapunzel was diagnosed as, but she had been here longer than anyone, perhaps they could find out more about her and why she's kept away from everyone. Belle hesitated, but finally grabbed Rapunzel's papers and handed them to Phoebus. She then shut the drawer, making sure to lock it to not raise suspicion.

Phoebus led them back out of the office and locked the door behind them, the hallway was empty making it an easy escape back up to their rooms. Once in the girl's corridor Phoebus handed Belle the papers.

"Give them back to me tomorrow and I'll sneak them back in, so no one notices." Belle nodded and turned on her heel, but feeling guilty she turned back.

"Thank you, Phoebus." She said. "I mean it."

"No, thank _you_," he gave her a smile and headed back downstairs, it was almost lunch and he didn't want to raise suspicion. Belle watched him leave and then headed back into her room with Ariel. As soon as she entered the room she shut the door and pulled out the papers, she gave a mischievous grin towards Ariel.

"Who first?" she asked holding out the three separate documents. Ariel put her finger on her lips while deciding.

"Let's see, eenie meenie minee Eric," she said finally. Belle giggled and handed Ariel his file. She watched as her friend's expression went from happy to anxious to sad to horrified.

"What? What is it?" Belle asked seeing the concerned look on the red-head's face.

"He's…He's suicidal…" Ariel choked out, her eyes wide in terror as she handed Belle the document.

Belle read it over and surprisingly Ariel was right, Eric _was _suicidal. His file said that it had been during swim practice and that he had been going on about how he could breathe underwater and how he wanted to prove it. His friends thought that he had been joking so they let him 'prove' it. He dove under the water and hadn't come up for 3 minutes when they started to get worried so they called a teacher. They managed to get Eric out of the water and were all convinced that it had been at attempt at suicide, even after Eric explained to them that he was fine and that he actually _could _breathe underwater.

She handed Ariel back the document. Belle took another one of the documents, Snow's. It claimed that she self-harmed. She read the small article clipped to her file.

_16 year old, Snow White, was found by her step-mother, Grimhelde on a Tuesday afternoon bleeding from several knife wounds along her wrists. When asked, the teenager admitted that she had been the one to inflict the self-injuries, but that she had felt no actual physical pain. "You see, I did it to prove a point. I can't feel pain physically, but no one believes me, I thought this would finally open their eyes." Snow had said. Psychologist Mistress Maleficent explained that most teenagers who self-harm go into a numb state when they inflict it and that the young teenager is still currently in a state of shock and delusion from being caught in the act._

Belle gasped, had sweet innocent Snow actually done this to herself? But that wasn't all that Belle found shocking, all of the patients held one thing in common: they all believed that they could do something special, and then they had been sent here. Meg thought she could see ghosts and was accused of worshipping Satan, Eric thought he could breathe underwater and they had accused him of being suicidal, Snow thought she couldn't feel physical pain and they diagnosed her as a self-harmer. Things just weren't adding up, could it be possible that no one in this house was actually crazy, and that they were all just special?

Ariel finished reading the article about Snow and wore the same expression as Belle.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" the red-head asked. Belle nodded.

"Can I see Rapunzel's file?" Belle asked. Ariel nodded and handed over the document. Belle stopped after reading the first few lines.

"That can't be right, it says here that she has schizophrenia, I thought she had FMS?" Belle asked looking at Ariel questionably.

"Different Rapunzel, maybe?" she guessed.

"No, I don't think so, it's not a very popular name. Wait a second, there's a photo of her, it's definitely the same Rapunzel." Belle continued reading until her gaze fell on the date the document was published: 1992. She showed Ariel what she had seen with shaky hands.

"What? But Rapunzel is only 15! And that document was published like 20 years ago!" Ariel exclaimed, shocked. Belle was only half-listening as she inspected the paper for other clues that would answer some of their questions. She stopped at the last sentence in the third paragraph: _Terminated April 2__nd__, 1991, is to be revived March 1__st__ 2009. _They had killed Rapunzel, had conserved her body and then revived her 4 years ago. That would explain why Rapunzel had all these apparent 'false' memories of a previous life at Mal house. It also meant that the staff here at Mal house were lying to them. What was the real reason they were at Mal house? It certainly wasn't because they were mentally ill, that much Belle had figured out. All she knew is that she had to get in contact with Rapunzel as soon as possible and if not her, then Esmeralda.

Belle showed Ariel her findings and she had immediately agreed with her that they should keep it to themselves, until they had actual evidence. Belle felt a new confidence growing inside of her, now that there was the slightest possibility that she and the others actually weren't mentally ill and were just special. She knew what she had to do, something she hadn't done in the past few months in fear that something unplanned would happened. She was going to read a bed time story….out loud.

**Thank you guys for reading my story, it truly means a lot I hope I didn't make Flynn sound too out there and crazy if you know what I mean, that is just a part of his Flynn side, along with the whining, the womanizing and the stupidity. You'll be seeing some of his Eugene side fairly soon, this will be a three-story trilogy and while there may not be too much Rapunzel/Eugene in this story, I can guarantee there'll be loads in the second one. Who's your guys' favorite character? I'll try to include them more Thank you again for reading, please review/favorite/follow byee!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Quasimodo and Esmeralda were sitting across from one another at a small table in the north tower above the attic, in other words: Quasi's room. Since the last night's events Esmeralda felt herself in need of a friend, but not someone who knew her too well, in case they saw through her fake smiles. Quasimodo had been the perfect choice. Ever since she had wandered into the tower the night before, he's been nothing but kind to her. When she had come up to the tower early this morning after breakfast, he had been a little shy at first, still not familiar with actual human interaction, Esmeralda suspected. But he had gradually opened up a bit more and was now telling her about his life up in the tower.

"So, I mean, you have all this time to yourself…how do you not get bored?" Esmeralda pondered aloud. Quasi gestured to the wooden carvings spread out over the table, he had recently finished one of Esmeralda who he had put in the tower next to his own wooden figure.

"It keeps me busy," Quasi said simply. Esmeralda picked up her figure from the diorama, touching it delicately and observing the details.

"How could you have possibly already finished this? We just met last night, and I came here as soon as I could in the morning, the paint's already dry and everything!" Esme asked curiously as she placed the wooden Esmeralda back in the tower next to Quasimodo. Quasi looked down, blushing.

"I, uh, might have stayed up a bit after you left last night…" he fumbled with his thumbs. Esmeralda let out a soft girlish laugh, one that Quasimodo wouldn't think she was capable of. When she spoke Esmeralda's voice was raspy and low, but when she laughed it came out light and high.

"Why do you stay up here?" she asked suddenly, turning her gaze from the wooden Mal house to Quasi.

"I'm safe here. No one would like me if I went downstairs, they'd just stare at me in disgust and would call me names," he said in an unfortunate voice. "Besides, my mast- I mean my uncle forbid me from ever leaving, unless I had his permission."

Esmeralda had clearly noticed how he corrected himself when he was about to say 'master', but she didn't say anything on the matter. " Then how about you ask him? He only said you couldn't leave without his permission. What if you _did_ get permission?" she persisted.

"Oh, no, I couldn't." Quasi said, shaking his head.

"Yes, you can. Please?" she said, giving him her wide green eyes that said '_for me?' _He was about to fumble another excuse, when he made the mistake of making eye contact, she wasn't going to let this go. He sighed, giving in.

"Alright, I'll ask." He said, giving her a small smile, making her grin widen.

"Good. No one deserves to be in here alone forever, Quasi," she said. However, the simple phrase had made Quasimodo do a double take. _Quasi? Is that what she had said? _No one had ever called him that before, had only ever called him 'boy' or just by his full name that actually meant 'half-formed'. He realised he liked the nickname 'Quasi' much better. Nickname. That was something you gave a friend. Could Esmeralda possibly already consider him as a friend, even though they had just met the previous night? Quasimodo had already decided that it didn't matter if they were friends or just simply acquaintances, he was lucky to have any company at all besides his uncle.

"Oh, Esmeralda, you had better leave! You're already late for lunch!" he said, glancing at the old-fashioned grandfather clock in the corner of the room.

"Alright, I'll see you later, my friend," she said as she hurriedly tied her purple hoody around her waist and headed towards the door.

"See you later…" Quasimodo hesitated. "…friend." She turned back towards him and flashed him a smile before dashing downstairs. _Friend. _The word sounded so unfamiliar coming from his mouth, he repeated her words again and again, hoping it wasn't just a fragment of his imagination. Quasimodo, the deformed hunchback, who had never been in contact with a teenager until he was 18, had a _friend_.

**Esmeralda dashed ** down the winding stairs two steps at a time, and then another set of them that led downwards from the attic. She was now more than well aware that she was over ten minutes late for lunch and that the staff would not be pleased. Just as she was about to turn the corner before the dining room, she ran head on into Aladdin.

"Holy F-"

"-shhh!" he whispered as he covered her mouth and quickly pulled her into the closest door, which so happened to be the study she had been yanked into the other evening.

"What the hell, Aladdin?!" she whispered angrily, when he finally removed his hand from her mouth.

"Where have you been?! The nurses were flipping! I was just on my way to find you," he half yelled, half whispered towards her. Esmeralda panicked, had her tardiness really caused such a stir?

"What about Mistress Maleficent? Is she-"

"-out for a meeting." Aladdin finished for her. At least that crossed one person off her list of people she had to worry about.

"But, seriously Esmeralda, where were you?" he asked, this time a bit more softly, he could no longer conceal his worry. All he wanted in the world was for her to trust him, but that was the thing with Esmeralda, she trusted no one. Even if she wouldn't admit it, that was the cold truth.

"I…I can't tell you." She said, looking down with guilt.

"Why not?" Aladdin was quick to counter.

"I made a promise that I wouldn't tell anyone," she replied.

"With who?" Aladdin persisted.

"Sorry," she started, lifting her gaze to his dark chocolate brown eyes, "I pinky swore." Then she gave him that childish smirk, the one a sister would give her older brother when she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, the kind that melted away any anger that had been on her opponents face and replaced it with a small smile and a shake of the head. Which was exactly what Aladdin was doing now, all the anger, frustration and worry had subsided and now he was just looking down at his _sister _shaking his head with a disbelieving smile on his face.

"Come on Es, before they send the cops after ya," he gave her a playful wink and they headed back to the dining room.

"Found her!" Aladdin announced as he entered the room. It was notable to Esmeralda that at least three of the nurses let out sighs of relief.

"Great." Aurora said sarcastically under her breath at the other side of the room, unknowing that Esme had heard exactly what came from her mouth. _Think before you act. Think before you act. _She kept saying to herself. She could have shot back one of her own witty comebacks to Aurora's blunt sarcasm, but instead she took her usual seat at the opposite table next to Phoebus and Flynn.

"Thank goodness you are alright Esmeralda, but please tell us, what is the reason for your lateness?" Miss Porter, the young tutor, said in her strong British accent. Esmeralda couldn't help but notice how Tarzan, who was directly across from her, shifted uncomfortably as she spoke, almost as if he had a crush on her or something. _Oooh looks like tall, dark and scary has a soft spot after all, _Esmeralda couldn't help but coo inside her mind, but she was quickly drawn back to reality as she realised everyone's eyes were on her, including Phoebus' who was more than curious of her whereabouts.

"I…I was just-"

"-She was taking a nap, I seen her as I passed her room on my way downstairs. She looked tired so I didn't bother waking her." Everyone looked to the direction in which the voice came from, and were quickly surprised to find out that it had come from Jasmine.

"Is that true?" Miss Porter looked questionably to Esmeralda who vaguely nodded.

"Yes, I didn't get much sleep last night," that in fact hadn't been a lie. She had stayed up late and then snuck over to the boy's corridor to get Phoebus, she told him about the whole Rapunzel incident, but didn't mention the events that had occurred in the _study _afterwards.

Aurora scoffed. "Hmph, that would explain the concealer around her eyes. Because you know, that's what I'm most worried about when I'm in a group home: bags under my eyes." She rolled her eyes, the bitterness coming off her in waves. That had stung Esmeralda a bit, mostly because Aurora was right, she had been wearing concealer, but not for the reason she thought.

"That is enough Aurora," Mulan warned. Aladdin was quick to jump in.

"Hey, it's better than you Aurora. All you do is stare at yourself in the mirror all day! How could you get more vain?" Aladdin said with a bragging smirk, knowing he had just earned Esmeralda a point. It seemed Flynn also wanted to join in on their little game.

"Vain!" he echoed, cupping his hands over his mouth to make a 'whooping' sound.

"Flynn!" Miss Porter scolded.

That last remark had clicked something off in Aurora, particularly because she had tried her best her entire life _not _to make herself appear that way.

When most people saw Aurora, they saw a snobby rich-girl princess who's only problem was picking out what Nail polish color went best with her skin tone. True, Aurora did have that vibe to her, she had long perfectly curled blonde hair, small features with high cheek-bones and a slim waist, what most girls would immediately classify as head-cheerleader material _or an airhead_, and of course she guessed the sarcasm and bitchy remarks was the cherry on top of the sundae. Aurora _wished _she was like that, but sadly she wasn't. Bitchy? Yes. High-school queen bee? No. In fact at her previous school Aurora had been known as a wall-flower, a geek, a know it all even. Aurora was rather techy and hated in when people referred to her as vain or a dumb blonde, because as much as she wished she was, she was neither. She was just a lonely girl who' s parents were always out on business trips, who's hair couldn't look messy even if she tried, who's higher than average brain had kept her out of the popular clique. She was a lonely rich-girl who wanted to be known as more than a pretty face. What was so wrong with that?

Aurora pushed herself up from her chair, making a loud screeching sound and stormed towards the door. She saw how Esmeralda had immediately jumped up, as if in an attempt to stop her, which brought on a whole new wave of anger as she stomped to her room. Esmeralda had the life Aurora wanted. She was popular with all the guys at Mal house, along with most of the girls. And Aurora could tell that she had definitely been popular at school as well, she just had that vibe to her, sometimes Aurora even found herself wishing she had just simply befriended her at the beginning, to spare herself all this grief. Esmeralda was popular, smart, kind and pretty, which prevented her from: A) being perceived as an air-head. B) being known as a geek. And C) Being looked at as a bitch. Aurora couldn't understand how one person had all the qualities she so desired. And yet little did she know that Esmeralda had been thinking the exact same thing.

_**I don't understand **__how one person could be so perfect, but not realize what they've got_. Esmeralda thought. Esmeralda had grown up in an orphanage, definitely not a place you want to be in. At school she had been pretty popular with the guys, but not so much with the girls, you see Esmeralda was one of the kids at school who would come to class wearing the first things they laid their hands on in the morning and would never give it a second thought, Esmeralda had naturally beautiful features like her raven locks, her deeply tanned skin and her glowing emerald eyes, so most people simply over-looked the fact that she wore the same crop top and jeans every three days. But of course Esmeralda had been excluded from the popular clique at public school, simply because she didn't have rich parents, designer clothing or blonde hair. She couldn't say the same for Aurora, in fact if Esmeralda were to guess, she would say that Aurora had been the Queen of Queens at her school, what with her perfect pale skin, perfect blonde hair and perfect rich parents, it wouldn't surprise Esmeralda in the least, but she wasn't about to judge, there was already enough of that. Besides, _hopefully _one day Esmeralda will be able to leave this place and she'll never have to see the perfect princess again.

Esmeralda sat back down in her seat as now Aurora was out of sight, clearly gone to pout up in her room. She was about to thank Aladdin for sticking up for her, and Jasmine for covering for her, but he was gone, they both were. A bedeviling smirk was playing on Esmeralda's lips, creating different scenarios in her mind. _Love is in the air._ Well, that is, assuming she was right.

**Aladdin and Jasmine** had snuck out of the dining room and down to the game room shortly after Al had said his comeback, he needed to talk to her about why she covered for Esme and it appeared as though she had nothing better to do.

"So.." he started, wiping his already sweaty palms on his pant legs. _Come on you idiot, it's not like you're asking her out. You're just concerned for your friend. _But Aladdin would be lying if he said that he wasn't excited to see Jasmine again.

"So?" she asked looking questionably at him.

"Oh, right, um…earlier, what you did for Esme, covering for her like that, it was really nice,"

"Is that it?" she said, cocking her eyebrows up.

"Why did you do it?" Al said, wasting no time with him fumbling his words.

"I.." Jasmine was about to lie, but found herself unable to. She just found herself trusting this teenager completely, besides, the first time she had lied in his presence it hadn't gone over too well. Meaning he had won.

"I overheard you guys in the study. I was guessing that you wouldn't want her to get into any trouble," Jasmine confessed, completely honest. Aladdin scanned her face, looking for any sign of falseness; he saw none.

"And why would my 'wants' matter to you?" he challenged her skeptically.

"I don't know." She rushed, feeling her cheeks flush.

"Looks like someone has a cru-ush," he said in a teasing, sing-song voice.

"I do not!" she snapped back.

"Does so." Aladdin whispered, tingling Jasmine's ear. Her face was now beet read.

"You wish." She said, glaring at him with both frustration and confusing amusement. Aladdin suddenly rubbed the back of his neck, like _he _was the one getting nervous. There was a turn of tables as now Jasmine realised, she was the one with the advantage.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with a crush, Ababwa," she taunted, using his last name. He let out a nervous laugh and tried to look as cool as possible, lifting his chin up, puffing his chest out, making him look rather ridiculous. Jasmine took a step towards him and had to suppress a giggle from escaping her lips when he instinctively took a step back.

"Nervous are we?" she smirked playfully, while crossing her arms daringly.

"No." he rushed. "-I mean, nah. Of course not!" he swatted at the air, making a 'pfft' sound. Meanwhile Jasmine took another step towards him, and he took another step back, knocking into the wall. Just then they heard Mr. Jafar's voice.

"Follow me, I think they came down here." He said. The voice was coming from upstairs, but it had to have been pretty close since they could hear it from the vent.

"Do you trust me?" Aladdin asked in all seriousness to Jasmine, while holding out his hand. Her almond eyes looked into his deep brown ones and she could have sworn that at that moment she would have trusted him with her life itself. But still she hesitated.

"..Yes?"

"Then follow me." She placed her hand in his and he pulled her out of the game room and down the hall. The voices were closer now and Aladdin realised they didn't have much time. He opened the door that was closest to them and pulled Jasmine in with him, much similar to the situation with Esmeralda only an hour before. He smirked in spite of himself at the déjà vu scenario. Except this time they weren't in an actual room, but a broom closet. Jasmine pulled the string that was dangling from a light bulb on the ceiling, it instantly illuminated the small space with something similar to a flash-light glow. The two were there for about 15 minutes, hardly even talking, just sitting there in the eerie silence, waiting either for a chance to escape up to their bedrooms or to be caught.

"Why are you smiling?" Jasmine suddenly snapped at him.

"I don't know, maybe the fact that you never break the rules, yet here you are, alone with a teenage boy in a closet, while you're supposed to be in class and there are who knows how many staff looking for us right now," suddenly Jasmine looked down, embarrassed, because he was right, she was doing all that he was saying. Aladdin's expression immediately grew serious as he saw Jasmine's reaction to his attempted joke.

"Hey, Jas, I didn't mean it like that,"

"And how else are you supposed to mean it? This isn't me, Aladdin. We hardly ever talked and then after just one night of speaking to you alone for less than 10 minutes, I trust you enough to follow you into a closet?!" she half-sobbed. Aladdin touched her cheek with his hand, brushing away a few strands of hair and perhaps a few tears as well, and Jasmine could have sworn her heart had skipped a beat. She leant in, uncertain if this is what she wanted, but too delirious to do anything else. Her heart was thumping faster and by now she was sure Aladdin felt it too. _Closer. Closer._ Jasmine closed her eyes, awaiting the soon to consume her, kiss. However something stopped both her and Aladdin from continuing, voices were heard, not distantly, but close, _really _close. Aladdin shushed her as he put his ear to the door, he jumped back just before it slammed open. There stood Jafar in his black and red suit, looking as intimidating as ever, but as frightening as Mr. Jafar could be, it wasn't him who had her so scared at this precise moment. For in front of him was a short, round man, with a cloudy white beard and dark brows, furrowed in disappointment.

"Here they are, sir," Mr. Jafar said, looking accusingly at both Aladdin and Jasmine. She couldn't think of anything else to say except: "Hello, father."

**Another chapter, yay! Would again like to thank all those who are reading this story, I really appreciate it. Anyways, points I'd like to make to this chapter:**

**-I really wanted to get the message out That Aladdin does **_**not **_**like Esme as anything more than a sister, that will be something very important to remember further on in the story.**

**-Also, I wasn't originally planning on writing the bit about Esme and Aurora's differences, but I felt like I had to give a reason behind their rivalry. I was originally just going to write it from Aurora's point of view, because I know I've made her sound like a huge bitch. Her back story may or may not be a big part of the story, not sure yet.**

**-Thirdly, I know it may seem that Aladdin and Jasmine's relationship came out of nowhere, but when you think about it, that's exactly how it happened in the movie. Jasmine trusted Aladdin as soon as she met him, they nearly kissed on the first day she knew him! Also, it's an essential part to my plot-line so yeah.**

**Thank you so much for reading! Love yas! Please Follow/ Favorite/ Review**

**Byeeee**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Aladdin waited impatiently in the living room. After Mr. Jafar and Jasmine's father had found her and Al in the closet, they had jumped to conclusions and Jasmine's father wanted to speak to her alone. It was obvious that her father was a decently strict man and would never be okay with his daughter sleeping around in a mental home and now Aladdin was almost certain that either he or Jasmine would get transferred. Jasmine told him before she went to talk to her father that she would come and get him after her father left, but she had said that over an hour ago and here he was, still waiting.

His head shot up as he heard footsteps, to his surprise it was only Esme. _Probably snuck out of class, _he thought.

"Hey," she said with a small smile, as she took a seat next to him on the couch.

"Hey," he mumbled. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Maybe…. but shouldn't you be there too?" she gave him a playful smirk.

"Long story." He sighed.

"Oh…" she said simply, looking down at her hands. "hey, I was thinking about asking Mistress Maleficent about Rapunzel….do you think I should?" she paused and looked briefly at his face.

"Yeah…you should…" he scratched the back of his head. "…you should do that."

"Is something bothering you, Aladdin?"

"Nah, I'm good. What about you? Is something bothering_ you_?" he looked at her half-skeptically. With everything else that was going on, Al never had the chance to talk to Esme again about what was on her mind ever since the 'Rapunzel incident'.

"What do you mean? Of course I'm fine!" she said, slightly irritated.

"Okay, Okay. Just asking, jeez." He sighed, sometimes she could be so stand-offish. There was a slight pause between them before Jasmine came walking in, Aladdin guessed she had already finished saying good-bye to her father.

"Am I interrupting anything?" she asked in suspicious politeness. Esmeralda immediately stood up from her seat,

"Nope. I was just leaving actually, see you Al," she gave him a slight wave before leaving the room.

"See you." He replied half-heartedly. He then looked to Jasmine. "So…"

"He was pretty mad," she started, but he could see a hint of a smile on her face.

"Did he think we…" Aladdin trailed off as he looked down to conceal the blush that had worked its way to his cheeks. Jasmine bit her lip and shrugged.

"You'd think he'd know me better, I mean, he's a single father and I'm his only daughter," she said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Single father? Are your parents divorced?" Aladdin asked, oblivious to why Jasmine's eyes were suddenly filled with sadness. She shook her head.

"No, my mom died in a car crash when I was 6," she sighed, suddenly feeling like she had swallowed marbles.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"-It's fine. Don't worry about it." she gave him the best smile she could come up with. "What about your parents?" Aladdin wasn't expecting that question, he knew it was obvious that she was just trying to avoid the topic by asking another question, but the particular subject of 'parents' led Aladdin into a whole new uncomfortable zone. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"My mom died when I was only 2, so I don't remember her. Then I lived with my dad until I was 10, but one day he dropped me off at a neighbour's house with most of my stuff, he said he had to go on a business trip with his work for a month, I never questioned it despite the fact he worked as a garbage man at the time. He never came back." Aladdin tried to shrug as casually as he could, but this small conversation had reopened deep wounds that all his life he had tried to fix. Never knowing if you still had a parent alive was one of the worse things, they could be long gone and dead, or they could still be out there alive, but either way, Aladdin's father had abandoned him, so he still considered himself fatherless . Jasmine looked at him, her gaze full of sympathy.

"Your neighbours, were they…were they nice?" she asked. Aladdin let out a loose laugh.

"Yeah, they were okay, but then they had 2 kids of their own and there was no room left for me. I was 13 when they sent me to the orphanage."

"Oh my goodness, that's terrible!" she locked her eyes with his, her eyes were ablaze with something like anger, mixed with some kind of regret and self-loathing that Aladdin almost found fascinating.

"Jasmine, it's alright, it's not like it's your fault, that kind of stuff happens to kids all the time. Unfortunately I had to be one of them." He paused, giving her a chance to speak, but she said nothing.

"…Anyways, we should probably get to class before they put me on a restraining order," he chuckled. Jasmine forced a smile as they headed to Mrs. Porter's class. All her life she had whined and complained to her father about how she was the unluckiest child in the world for losing her mother at 6 years old, it seemed like it was just now that she realised that there were kids out there who had it worse than her, kids like Aladdin.

"You coming?" Aladdin asked as he noticed Jasmine had stopped in the middle of the hallway. Jasmine nodded as they walked into the classroom, still consumed in their own thoughts.

**Esmeralda knocked **lightly on the door to Mistress Maleficent's office, desperately wanting answers, but frightened for what the answers might be.

"Come in," the voice was croaky and cold, and gave Esme the chills. She reached her shaky hand down to the brass doorknob and tried turning it.

"It's…It's locked…" Esmeralda said, still unsure if this was really the best idea. There was a pause and Esmeralda was about to turn on her heel and walk away, but then the door opened and there stood, much to Esmeralda's disappointment, Mr. Jafar.

"Do you have an appointment?" he barked, his voice jagged and demanding.

"No, but I..."

"Then you have no business being here," he hissed spitefully, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Mr. Jafar, that is quite enough. How may I help you Esmeralda?" Mistress Maleficent's voice came from somewhere behind him. It was sweet and sickly sounding, like it hadn't come from her at all, her voice seemed kind and gentle, _too_ kind and gentle.

"It's umm…concerning Rapunzel," she cleared her throat, "ma'am." Esmeralda turned her eyes towards Mr. Jafar for a moment and gave him a sharp glare. Mistress Maleficent scanned Esmeralda for a moment with what seemed like glowing eyes full of fascination, but Esme thought it more probable that it was suspicion, it was like Mistress Maleficent was trying to detect something other than concern within Esmeralda's emotions.

"Hmm…Mr. Jafar, you are dismissed." She waved her hand, telling him to, for lack of better words: 'Get lost'. Mr. Jafar stared at Esme with pure hatred at that one moment, but it seemed like he didn't want to make a fuss in front of the big boss, so he wordlessly exited. As soon as he was out of sight, Mistress Maleficent gestured for Esmeralda to take a seat.

"Now then, tell me these 'concerns' of yours," she said a bit skeptically. Esmeralda calmed herself before answering, she couldn't let them know that she thought that they had murdered Rapunzel, that would just be digging her _own_ grave- literally.

"I..I just want to know if she's alright," she said, choosing her words carefully. Mistress Maleficent seemed pleased with her question, and her skeptic smirk and beady eyes changed to their regular plastered on fake friendliness.

"You and Miss Rapunzel were very good friends were you not?" Mistress Maleficent said, with a touch of false empathy. Esmeralda nodded and tilted her head down, while still looking straight ahead with her green orbs.

"I can assure you that Rapunzel is very safe in her new _environment_. Mal house wasn't the right place for her, but she has been transferred to a new home that is more suitable for her needs." She finished with an almost believable smile.

"Can we call her?" Esmeralda asked, with a concealed note of challenging defiance. The pleasurable smile on Mistress Maleficent's face vanished in an instant, but quickly returned after she deciphered Esme's question.

"Pardon me?" her voice heightened half an octave.

"Once she gets settled.." Esme started again, hesitating, "…can we call her, just to make sure everything's alright?" Esmeralda tried to sound as concerned as possible, but behind her real concern there was also suspicion and a hint ofskepticism.

"Yes." Mistress Maleficent's voice was now cold and hollow. Esmeralda's face brightened up a bit, _maybe her friend was okay after all._ "…Once she is settled." Mistress Maleficent finished as she stared at Esmeralda with austere cold superiority. Now she was almost certain that the owner of Mal house knew of her suspicions, and instead of relieving her of them or confirming them, she was going to keep Esme on the edge of her seat. Esmeralda held Mistress Maleficent's authoritative gaze, not even daring to blink, her expression was almost as hard and emotionless as her opponent, except hers held a little pride as well.

"Thank you." Esmeralda said, with her chin raised, eyes still directed towards the Mistress.

"You are excused," she finally said, returning her proud glare down to the papers on her desk. Esmeralda nodded and exited the room, making sure to half-slam the door on the way out.

**Belle and Ariel **both slumped against one of the walls in their room, Belle knew what had to be done, but now she was more frightened to do it than ever.

"You don't have to do this you know, we already have proof," the redhead whispered to her discouraged friend.

"I know. But I need…" she sighed and shut her eyes tightly. "…I need proof for myself." She finished and turned to look back at Ariel.

"Alright. What book do you want to read?" Ariel asked.

"We should probably start basic," Belle explained. "Hmmm….how about the ugly duckling?" Belle wondered aloud. Ariel's face immediately took on an expression of enthusiasm, before changing to a somewhat sad smile.

"What is it?" Belle lightly placed her hand on Ariel's shoulder in a comforting matter, Ariel was the closest thing Belle had ever had to a sister-or sibling of any kind for that matter.

"My mom, when I was younger always read me that book. I live in a family with 6 older sisters, all who are pretty, talented and smart, I was always the _ugly duckling _of my family." Ariel said, a bit bitterly.

"I'm sure she'll be very happy to see you when you get out," Belle said, trying to lift her friend's spirits.

"She's dead." Ariel snapped in a harsh, cold tone that suggested there was maybe a bit more underneath the curious and innocent exterior she seemed to put off. "She died of Leukemia when I was 14." Ariel lifted her head and glanced in Belle's direction, who looked slightly frightened. The red-head's eyes were now glazed with remorse. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that, it's just…sometimes it stings you know, not having a mother to return to while others do." Belle felt like that last remark was almost an accusation directed towards her and felt the need to defend herself.

"I don't have a mother either, she left us when I was only 3." Belle said coldly. Ariel nearly looked stunned. "Anyways…" Belle continued. "Let's get the book," Ariel nodded and looked through Belle's personal stack of disordered books, there were paper-backs, hard-covers, novels, biographies, non-fiction, you name it, and she had it. Finally Ariel found it wedged in between a Sherlock Holmes novel and a biography of Marie Currie.

"Found it," she said as brought the Mother Goose fable's book over to her friend. Belle inspected the cover for a moment which had the title engraved in fancy gold calligraphy; she blew the dust off the top of it to reveal some of the covered letters of the author's name. She opened the book and hesitated before reading: "_Page 1…."_

**Meg and Flynn **were both gasping heavily in the bathroom in the boy's corridor. Flynn ran a hand through his sweaty hair and exhaled air.

"Oh man…. Next time you're on top," he said, leaning against the countertop, shirtless, with his thumbs hooked in the loops of his jeans.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say hot-shot." Meg sassed in reply, using her signature sarcastic charm, while tidying her now messy ponytail.

"We should probably give it a break for a while, I mean didn't Al and Jasmine get caught this afternoon?" Flynn said as he scrubbed his face with a cold cloth.

"Yeah, but they're amateurs. We're much more.." Meg struggled to find the right word. "…experienced."

"I don't know, I got a feeling they're on to us, I say we wait a week, give things the time to cool down." Flynn said a bit uneasy. Meg had gotten here around the same time as he had, and one day they were both in Flynn's room working on an assignment and well…stuff happened. They soon found out that the both of them had an extremely high sex-drive and they managed to work out this arrangement. It's not like they had any actual emotional relationship, it was more like _friends with benefits_. Not even, because if it wasn't for their arrangement, Meg wouldn't even have given Flynn the time of day; _Acquaintances with benefits _was much more befitting.

"So…" Flynn started, an all too knowing grin spread on his face, "…I heard an interesting story from Eric yesterday…." She glanced at him with an untrusting glare.

"Mhmm…" she mumbled, pretending not to care, but Flynn knew that on the inside she was biting for the information.

"…he said that apparently Mr. Macho has the hots for ya," Flynn smirked as Meg whisked around to face him.

"And who exactly is 'Mr. Macho'?" she questioned suspiciously. Flynn gave a long yawn, enjoying her impatience far too much.

"…Hercules. Poor guy, doesn't even know what he's in for," Flynn snickered which earned him a hard punch to the gut.

"Oh please," Meg rolled her eyes, "As if I'd even go for that," she looked back to Flynn who had a bemused smile on his face. "What?!" she snapped.

"Meg, Meg, Meg; Innocent little Megara, pretends to be all nice and sweet, avoiding guys. And then, when you least expect it….bang! She starts making out with you in a closet," Flynn broke out into laughter.

"Say whatever you want, but I can't count how many times you've tried to use the innocent 'smolder' on girls that have walked through this house," she shot back.

"Hey! Don't hate the player, hate the game," he clicked his tongue, flashing Meg his infamous cocky grin. Meg was about to either fire one of her sarcastic remarks or punch him in the stomach, but was soon interrupted as someone was knocking at the door.

"Someone's in here!" Flynn shouted to whoever was waiting to enter the washroom.

"Meg?" It was Esmeralda's voice. "I know you're in there," she said. Meg groaned.

"Ughh, we can't get anything past that girl," she muttered under her breath.

"I heard that!" Esme shouted through the door.

"Don't take it too personally, Phoebus and I can't figure out how she does it either," Flynn said with a half-chuckle tone to his voice.

"Listen, I don't know what you two are doing in there, bu-"

"-I'm coming!" Meg shouted realising she didn't have a choice in the matter, Esmeralda wasn't a snitch, but she didn't need her spreading gossip around to someone else who would tell on them.

"Catch ya on the flip side," Flynn mockingly saluted as Meg opened the door to see an impatient Esmeralda leaning against the opposite wall.

"Well?" Meg said in a rude, expectant tone of voice. "What do you want?" she said as she crossed her arms.

"Can we go somewhere private?" Esme lowered her tone.

"Like where? My room?" Meg scoffed sarcastically. To her surprise, Esmeralda nodded.

"Sure. Yeah. Whatever." Meg grumbled as she led Esmeralda to her and Jasmine's room.

Once in their room Meg shut the door and glared at the black haired girl with impatience.

"I don't know if this is some type of game or whatever, but I think y-"

"- No I came here for a reason," Esmeralda cut Meg off as she tightly shut her eyes and reopened them. "You can see ghosts right?" she asked, looking at the brunette hopingly. Meg rolled her eyes.

"Depends on who's asking," she replied slyly. Esmeralda bit her lower lip anxiously and lowered her head slightly.

"Meg," she paused. "I need to ask you a favor…"

**Hey guys! Thanks for reading, if you have any questions concerning the story let me know!**

**Points for this chapter:**

**-You might notice that there's a lot of information about the characters' parents mentioned in this chapter, some of their parents might be important later on in the story so I wanted to explain their situations.**

**-I hope none of you guys are too taken back by the whole Meg and Flynn exchange, I think I explained the situation pretty well in this chapter, but if you guys have any questions about it, just ask**

**What do you guys think's going to happen next? Review/Follow please, thanks again, byeee :-)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay just before I start with this chapter, I got a review asking about Meg's brother. Meg's brother **_**is **_**Adam from beauty and the beast, I guess now that I look back on it, it was a little confusing, so ya Meg's brother is the beast from beauty and the beast, except in human form, so Adam. Don't worry, even though he's a ghost there'll still be plenty of Belle/ Adam stuff going on.**

Chapter 8

"…wait, so you think Rapunzel's dead? And that _they _killed her?" Meg looked at Esmeralda in bewilderment; however Esme had been expecting this reaction and was prepared to argue her point.

"Come on Meg," she pleaded. "I _know_ I'm not the only one in this house who thinks there's something freaky going on. Just think about it, I overhear douchebag whispering about murdering someone, then the next morning Rapunzel gets one of her flash-back thingys and starts talking about how 'it's happening again' and then Mr. Jafar literally sedates her before they drag her out on a stretcher!" Esmeralda finished, barely taking a breath. Meg snapped out of her shock stage and glared at Esmeralda.

"How do I know you're not just toying with me? Watching the psycho Satan-worshiper in action and then gossiping about it to anyone who'll listen," Meg snapped, her tone bitter, skeptic and unfazed.

"You think _I'd _toy with _you_? I can't count how many times people have asked me if my 'super senses are tingling'. Besides, if I told anyone, you could easily just tell them that you were putting on a show for the schizo," Esmeralda said quietly, besides the depression behind her voice, there was also reason. Meg_ could _say that, if Esmeralda really went off and blabbered. Meg's violet eyes lingered around the room, searching for something that would give her the excuse not to do what Esmeralda was asking of her. She eventually made the mistake of setting her gaze on Esmeralda's pleading green eyes, filled with innocent hope.

"Fine, but you owe me one." She snarled through gritted teeth. Honestly, Meg didn't even know if she was capable of doing what Esmeralda wanted her to do; she had only ever actually _summoned_ a ghost once, her brother, and that was by accident! Anything could go wrong and Meg didn't want to be on the receiving end if something bad were to happen.

"So umm…" Meg hesitated, her snappy tone faltering for a moment, "What exactly am I supposed to do?" she looked questionably at Esmeralda, who at the moment was playing with a thread on her top.

"What do you mean? You've talked to the dead before haven't you?" Esmeralda said nonchalantly. Meg clenched her jaw in annoyance, tightening it to permit herself from replying with anything bitchy or snarky.

"Right.." she said, only really half saying the truth. Meg shut her eyes and tried to focus on Rapunzel; her petite form, her round cheeks, the little freckles that dotted her nose, her vibrant green eyes and her head full of golden sunshine hair. She soon had a full visualisation of the blonde in her mind and she pressed her concentration even further, her eyes suddenly snapped open as she felt another person's presence in the room.

"Rapunzel?" Meg said, still unsure if this was such a good idea. Her gaze flickered across the room until they fell upon a transparent body sitting on the bed.

"Hi." She said, barely directing her still clear green eyes from the floor. Meg did a double take.

"Is…is it really you?" Meg stuttered. Rapunzel shrugged,

"Who else would it be?"

"What is she saying?" Esmeralda whispered nosily, unaware that Rapunzel was in fact sitting less than 3 feet away from her. Meg put up her hand, silencing Esmeralda for a moment and focusing harder on Rapunzel.

"Are you…" Meg started as she shut her eyes tightly, "Are you dead," there was a pause and for a moment Meg thought that Rapunzel's spirit was gone. It wasn't until she found the courage to open her eyes again, that she realized the blonde was still sitting on the bed.

"Not exactly…" she hesitated. "I'm in a coma, but since I've been genetically modified, my spirit can leave my body while it's asleep." Rapunzel stated simply, in a dull tone of voice.

"So you're not dead…" Meg said, trying to clear things up in her mind for her own sake. Esmeralda's eyes immediately brightened and she perked up as she processed what Meg had just said. "but how do you know you've been genetically modified?" Meg questioned, still weary on this whole talking-to-ghosts thing.

"I remember my previous life, the one I kept getting flashbacks from." Rapunzel replied.

"Previous life? But that's imposs-"

"-No, it's not." Rapunzel interrupted " I was born in 1980. I was brought to Mal house in 1991 when I was 11. They used me as their little guinea pig and in return, paid my foster mother, Gothel, a great deal of money. They wanted to do a new kind of experiment, to see if they could preserve life. They murdered me a few months after I got here and preserved my body in some type of machine under the tiles in the basement. They brought me back to life in 2009 and I've been here ever since." She finished, looking slightly flustered and unfocused.

"So all these flashbacks you were having…they were from before you were murdered?" Meg tried to take a grasp on everything Rapunzel was telling her.

"Exactly, that was the flaw in their plan, I wasn't supposed to remember anything, so when I started talking about the flashbacks I was getting…"

"…they said you had FMS," Meg finished bluntly. "but if you couldn't remember your previous life before, how can you remember it now?" Meg asked, overwhelmed with confusion.

"I don't know. I've been trying to answer the same question." Rapunzel said, almost frustrated. There was a small pause before Meg spoke up again.

"So if you're not dead…where are you?"

"Again…I don't know. I think it's some type of insane asylum though," the blonde pondered aloud. Just then she began flickering, as if she were some type of futuristic hologram.

"Meg?!" Rapunzel said urgently, her eyes filled with incomprehensive fear.

"What's happening?" Meg panicked, trying to keep Rapunzel's image focused in her head.

"I think…" she started worriedly, "…I think I'm waking up." Rapunzel finished, her words held some type of realization and alarm to them as her ghostly figure started dimming.

"But we don't know what's going on, you need to stay so you can help us!" Meg replied, her face filled with bitter disappointment, realizing she wouldn't get the answers both she and Esmeralda were looking for. Meanwhile, Esme had stood up abruptly from the bed. She had understood bits and pieces of the conversation Meg was having with her invisible friend, and she too was panicking upon realizing they wouldn't have as much time together as they thought.

"I'll come back as soon as I can," Rapunzel said, now her form was almost entirely invisible. "I promise." Her voice faded away and Meg no longer felt the blonde's presence in the room.

"Is she gone," Esmeralda's low whispering voice brought Meg back to reality. She nodded wordlessly, her eyes still transfixed on the spot on the bed where Rapunzel had been sitting.

"Where did she go?" Esmeralda asked again, forgetting all boundaries and just letting curiosity get the better of her.

"Some mental asylum- at least that's what she said." Meg somewhat mumbled, she was slightly distracted and was only half aware of the words that were coming out of her mouth.

Esmeralda let out a sigh of relief and it suddenly dawned on Meg that Esmeralda had been assuming that Rapunzel was dead. She thought about that for a minute; Esmeralda and Rapunzel had been pretty much best friends at Mal house, what if Aurora had been taken away from Mal house and presumably killed, would Meg have felt the same pang of sorrow that Esmeralda had felt after realizing her friend was probably dead? As crazy as it sounds, Meg seriously doubted she would have felt anything at all if one of her 'friends' at Mal house were to die. Ever since her brother passed away she had never really felt any emotion at all, and was careful not to trust anyone or get too close, just in case something bad was to happen. It was like a part of her was missing, she was incomplete and the only way to fill the hole was with bitter lies that she pretended to care about and empty promises of love that guys would give to her right before she slept with them.

"How can you see her though, if she's not dead" Esmeralda interrupted her thoughts as she quirked an eyebrow in incomprehensiveness. Meg sighed and realized she'd probably have to relay her and Rapunzel's entire conversation. She decided it was best to start from the beginning.

"Rapunzel was born in 1980…"

**It was half an hour before supper **and Tarzan was trying his best to ignore Flynn, who was lying on the other bed with earphones in 'singing' incoherent words that made Tarzan believe that he was tone-deaf. Right now Tarzan was trying to finish up the assignment Ja- Miss Porter had given him a couple days earlier, but the task proved to be impossible as Flynn screeched another note in what Tarzan guessed was 'Blurred Lines'. Giving up, he slammed his text book shut and wandered out into the hallway, hoping to find some peace and quiet.

Tarzan wasn't exactly a 'people person', sure he had a couple friends and didn't _entirely _lack social abilities, but he found that some people just gave off a bad vibe and that's exactly why he was put in here. It was 2 years ago at a movie theatre,

_Tarzan sat lazily in one of the back row maroon seats, it was nearly midnight and the theatre was pretty much empty. Tarzan had long since forgotten about the movie that was playing before him and was now looking around at the different people, overwhelmed with boredom. The only reason he was even at the movies was because his mother was constantly nagging at him to get out of the house. _

_At the moment he was looking at a teenage girl who had shoulder length blonde hair and was sitting in a seat a few rows in front of him, alone. She as well looked bored and was texting someone on her phone. A few minutes later the girl stood abruptly from her seat, grabbed her purse and began heading towards the exit. Tarzan wearily side-gazed at her through his dark dread-locks, she was passing his row when he noticed a man that was sitting in the other column of seats as well got up and began following her out the exit. The man was wearing a leather jacket and looked to be at least in his thirties, Tarzan didn't know why, but he felt like there was something bad about this man and without thinking Tarzan also got up from his seat and followed them to the theatre's exit._

_Once outside Tarzan was hit by a cool blast of wind and he noticed the girl from earlier, she was walking along the frozen sidewalk and the man was following her, just a few paces behind. Tarzan lengthened his strides and clenched his jaw, there was definitely something wrong about that man. He continued following, keeping his pace a few yards behind the strange man. The blonde girl turned at an intersection into one of the side streets, the man followed. Tarzan changed his brisk walk into a jog, and sped up so that there was only a few metres between him and the guy in the leather jacket, the man noticed and also sped up, he was now only a few feet behind the girl and she seemed completely oblivious, it was only then that Tarzan noticed the tiny ear buds tucked in her ears, she couldn't hear a thing._

_The teenager made another turn and so did the man, they were nearing an alleyway and Tarzan saw the man glance at it more than once. The man turned to glance behind him and Tarzan ducked behind a building so to not be seen. The man resumed his pace, he and the girl were about to pass by the alleyway and Tarzan noticed the man take an item from his pocket, as soon as he saw the glint of silver flash from the moonlight he went into action mode. _

_Without hesitation he sped from his hiding place and tackled the man to the brick wall of the abandoned building they were near, he twisted his wrist making him drop the pocket-knife on the pavement. Tarzan growled and smashed the man against the wall again, looking into his now fearsome eyes, before throwing him on the ground. It was just then that the blonde teenager turned around, her eyes wide with confusion, shock, disbelief and fear. Tarzan could have pleaded innocent right there and explained why he had just tackled a stranger to the ground, but he didn't have a chance as the girl quickly grabbed a can of pepper spray from her purse, pointing it right at Tarzan's face. Tarzan raised his hands in surrender, he looked at the limp body on the ground and then at the girl's frightened face, and realized that things didn't look good._

After that the girl had called 911 who had immediately notified his parents, he would never forget the disappointment he saw in his mother's eyes that night. The man he had thrown on the ground was paralyzed from his waist down, no one believed Tarzan's story, they all just assumed he was insane and that he had attacked an innocent stranger under false accusations.

Even today, Tarzan still couldn't get over how he had just known something was wrong. It wasn't just with that man either. Often times just after meeting someone for the first time, he could tell what type of person they were.

For example, he knew the moment he saw Flynn, that he wouldn't be the _best _person to share a room with; he knew that he would be loud, obnoxious and a slob. But even Flynn had grown on Tarzan, it was more so the staff he was worried about. Tarzan had had a session with Dr. Frollo earlier this morning and there was _definitely _something wrong. The vibes of evil and badness were just coming off him in waves; When Tarzan looked at someone, it was almost like he was looking in the depths of their soul, they had almost a glow around them. For someone like Ja- Miss Porter, their glow was bright and luminous, and Tarzan immediately felt relaxed around them. But sometimes he would meet someone with a dark, ominous shadow, like Dr. Frollo or Mistress Maleficent, there was just something uncomforting that clicked into gear when they were around.

Tarzan returned to his room, now feeling a painful migraine from his concerns. Flynn was still lying on his bed, jamming out in his own little world. Tarzan stared at him, trying to put his image in focus. It wasn't long before a slight haze appeared around him, sort of a glow, but not as bright as others he sometimes seen. It was more of a neutral color, that to the untrained eye, blended right in. Tarzan grunted, something like a laugh and smirked.

_It suits him._

**Awesome! We got to see a bit more of Tarzan, yay! I would like to thank everyone for the positive reviews I've been getting : ) I really appreciate them. Points for this chapter:**

**I'm sorry if it seems like I'm not including everyone in the story equally, but it's probably because they'll have a bigger part in the story later on. For example, I'll probably be adding Naveen, Tiana, Pocahontas, John Smith and a few others **_**way **_**later on, I already have parts for them, but unfortunately they don't fit into the plotline until either the second or third part of this story**

**Is there anyone I've already introduced that you guys want to see more of? Let me know : ) I'm always open to suggestions**

**What do you guys think's gonna happen next?**

**Well, that's it! Please review/follow/ favorite! There should be another chapter up by next weekend!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I apologize for taking so long to update, my family and I went on a trip to Paris, I thought I would have the time to update while I was there, but unfortunately I was always either too exhausted or too busy. Anyways here's another chapter, hope you guys enjoy:)**

Chapter 9

At the supper table, Ariel and Belle were both trying their best not to burst into a fit of giggles, the two shared anxious glances once in a while, which oddly enough, went unnoticed by most of the staff and teens at the table. _Most_. At the other table, they had unsuspectingly drawn the attention of Phoebus who had now stopped eating and was half-staring at them over the other patients' heads. Hercules was sitting across from him and Phoebus was unsuccessfully trying to look around the muscly athlete as he went on talking about his old trainer, Phil, who honestly Phoebus could care less about as now his focus was completely on the fiery red-head and her brunette companion.

Just then, Belle and Ariel wordlessly got up and took their plates to the sink before heading upstairs. Phoebus was quick to notice their absence and he too got up to join them.

"Yeah, cool story Herc. Excuse me," he said distractedly to the ginger as he got up from his seat and bee-lined to the girls corridor. Hercules was a little put off by Phoebus' rude behavior, but shrugged and continued his discussion with his other friends that surrounded him.

"What's up with him today?" Eric said, nodding his head towards Phoebus, while looking expectantly and curiously at the pair of friends across from him, Flynn and Esmeralda.

"Who?" Flynn said with his mouth full, he was scarfing down the _nutritious _veggie pizza the staff had made that night as if it were the last meal he would ever have. Esmeralda rolled her eyes at her friend's pig-headedness and idiocy

"Phoebus. You idiot," she hissed under her breath. She then turned her attention back to Eric who was still looking at the two, waiting for an answer. "I don't know," she sighed, putting her fork down next to her plate, not really feeling hungry anymore. She crossed her arms and leant back in her chair, thinking hard for a moment "He hasn't really talked to me that much in the last couple of days," she said, shrugging, but on the inside she felt a twinge of worry. _No, don't worry. Phoebus would tell you if something was wrong. Wouldn't he? _Right now Esmeralda wasn't so sure. There had been a small gap between them ever since she woke him up in the middle of the night and told him about Rapunzel; it was almost like he knew there was something else bothering her and that he was hurt that she didn't tell him.

Esmeralda sat rigidly, looking blankly down at her plate. Her mouth was dry, her ears were ringing and she had a head-ache which for her, was a sure sign that something was going on. "I'm going upstairs," she said quietly to Flynn who wasn't paying much attention as he reached across the table for another slice of pizza. Esmeralda shook her head in amusement, got up and tossed her dishes in the sink. She was about to leap up the stairs to the girls' corridor when she felt a tight grip on her shoulder, she didn't need to turn around to know who the cold brutal grasp belonged to.

"And where do you think you're going," she turned to see Dr. Frollo, sneering mockingly down at her, piercing her with his iron orbs. He tightened his grip, creating a new bruise on her already damaged shoulder.

"I'm going to my room." She stated, glaring emerald darts into his granite stone eyes.

"Actually, I do believe tonight you are on dish-washing duty," he began leading her back towards the kitchen, shoving her slightly.

"No," she hissed spitefully through gritted teeth, "I did them at breakfast." She shook his bony grip off her shoulder, and glared at him defiantly, daring him to argue with her further. His expression changed to one of anger, impatience and frustration at her persistent stubbornness and quick wit, but then quickly back to the same annoying, mocking and pleasurable smirk he always wore.

"Ah, so it appears I have made a mistake. Very well, please forgive me for _disturbing _you Miss Esmeralda," he said curtly, but Esme was well aware that there was more than a trace of venomous sarcasm behind his seemingly harmless and courteous words.

"You're right, you _have _made a mistake." She said with a clenched jaw, willing herself not to strangle him right then and there in front of everyone, but boy, if looks could kill. She turned away and bounded up the stairs to the girls' corridor before he could say a word in protest.

At the top of the stairs Esmeralda could hear a few voices, one in which it was clearly identifiable as Phoebus', Esmeralda couldn't hide the small smile that had found its way to her lips at the sound of his voice; so warm and gentle, filled with youth. However, the smile faltered as she distinguished the other voice as Belle. Somehow that had struck a blow right in the chest for Esmeralda, it wasn't like she and Phoebus were _dating _per-se, but the two had developed a very interesting type of relationship while they were in this house. She felt betrayed that he would just go chat it up with Belle while he was still giving her the cold shoulder. Or maybe he wasn't, as far as Esmeralda could tell, he was only ignoring her because he was worried about her, but even so, she had to admit that it stung a bit, hearing him talking with _other _girls behind her back. It wouldn't have bothered her so much had it been Flynn, he always talked to girls; Phoebus however did not, as far as Esmeralda knew, she was the only girl in the house that he actually _talked _to. Yes, he was a flirt, but no other girl in this house actually _knew _who he was and he certainly hadn't tried getting to know any other girl besides Esmeralda. She never would have suspected him to be the type of womanizer to just make a new girl-best friend after he got tired of his previous one.

Esmeralda walked further down the girls' corridor with the full intent of heading straight to Belle's room to see what exactly was going on, she was about to enter when she heard Phoebus' voice, slightly muffled by the door,

"…That's amazing! How come you didn't tell me a few days ago?" Esmeralda's fist still lingered by the door, waiting for the right moment to knock. There was a slight pause before Belle replied.

"Come on, you know you wouldn't have believed me, but now that you're in on the secret we can work out a plan…"

Esmeralda hesitated, wanting more than ever to open the door and join in on whatever _secret _it was that they were talking about; however, she did not, instead she bit her lip and slowly headed towards the end of the hall to her room. Phoebus clearly had more _important _plans than spending time with her. Whatever 'secret' it was that he was in on was obviously why he hadn't really spoken to her much in the past couple of days. In a way it was kind of ironic; ever since she had entered this building the staff had constantly been trying to isolate her, make her feel alone, but Esmeralda had always proved to them that she would never be alone, that she would always have friends to support and fight for her. But now, what felt like for the first time in forever, she actually felt like she was by herself, out of the loop, _isolated._ As she lied on her bed, thinking of the things she might have done wrong that would lead to Phoebus abandoning her, she couldn't help but feel that Mistress Maleficent, Mr. Jafar, _Dr. Frollo, _had won. They had made her feel like she was on her own little island, _alone._

"**Come on, you know you wouldn't have believed me, but now that you're in on the secret we can work out a plan," **__Belle was saying to Phoebus, after he had joined her and Ariel up in their bedroom.

"Okay, so where is the little guy anyways?" he said, briefly inspecting the room with excited brown eyes. Belle let out a light-hearted laugh and it looked as though Ariel was trying her best to contain her smile.

"He's in the closet," Belle replied, Phoebus immediately stood from the girl's bed and walked over to the old-fashioned wardrobe that must have been at least a hundred years old. He opened it and let out a short, soft chuckle as he saw a baby swan cowering in the corner, an _ugly duckling_. Phoebus picked up the bird, caressing it soothingly, Ariel snorted in disbelief.

"What?" Phoebus asked with a bemused smile on his face, "I like baby birds," Belle and Ariel both burst into laughter.

"Who would have thought, the brave, humorous Phoebus de Châteaupiers, has a thing for ducks," Ariel said, through fits of giggles. Phoebus took on a look of fake seriousness.

"Hey! It's a swan!" he said with false harshness, all while trying to remain as manly as possible (which is pretty hard when you're holding a bird the size of your palm in your hand.)

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. So, are you going to help us get it back in its story or not?" Ariel said, getting straight to the point.

"Depends…what's in it for me?" he raised his eyebrows up and down cheekily. Belle rolled her eyes and walked right up to Phoebus, giving him a slight push that made him flop down onto the bed.

"What's in it for you is that we don't get Esmeralda in here to kick your ass," she smirked. Phoebus looked at her unable to speak,

"Ok fine, I'll try to help..but what exactly am I supposed to do? You're the one who has the magical reading powers…not me." Phoebus gave in, making large gestures as he spoke.

"Don't you have all knowing powers or something?" Ariel inquired, "We've come to the conclusion that every teen in this house has a magic power of some sort, we just assumed that you had the power of 'knowledge' or something, because you always seem to know what's going on around here." Ariel explained briefly. Phoebus laughed and rubbed nervously the back of his neck, he wish he had the power of knowledge, then he _would _know exactly what was happening in the house. He had been avoiding Esmeralda the past couple of days because he was afraid that he would snap at her, creating an even bigger dent in their relati- _friendship_. Phoebus trusted Esme with everything and it hurt him that she wouldn't tell him what else was going on. His only solution: Ignore her completely. So far though, the plan was proving to be an absolute failure as there hadn't past a minute where he hasn't been thinking about her.

"So you guys have figured that out too huh? What about _you_? What's your power?" he said, looking expectantly at Ariel.

"hey, we're talking about _you _right now," Ariel refused stubbornly, furrowing her eyebrows.

"You'll laugh," Phoebus gave a nervous smile directed towards Belle, he thought he saw the corners of her lips twitch upwards a bit, indicating a hint of a playful smirk. Ariel on the other hand was still staring at him expectantly, she definitely wasn't going to let this go. Phoebus sighed and then said quickly in one breath: "I have a way with words." He stopped, looking at their expressions. To his surprise, the only one who was laughing was Belle! She had put a hand over her mouth, trying to somewhat contain herself, but Phoebus could still hear the muffled half-hearted laughter that escaped her lips. Ariel quirked an eyebrow at him, her skepticism showing.

"You're…being serious?" she asked. Phoebus grinned in return.

"I know, I know. Make fun of me all you want…actually don't…please." He looked at her with joking pleading eyes.

"Hmph, no wonder the nurses all obey your every whim," Belle muttered after she had calmed herself down.

"…or it's just because of my undeniable charm," he said smoothly, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Your 'way with words'is what gives you that charm, lover boy. Speaking of which, where is Esmeralda?" Belle asked, trying to sound casual, but it came out more as suspicion.

"We haven't been talking much lately," Phoebus shrugged, hoping he was making it look like it wasn't a big deal to him, which in reality it was. He hadn't even realised that he was now looking at the ground with a bored expression covering his face, showing Belle and Ariel that he wasn't saying the whole truth.

"Phoebus, look at me," Belle's soft voice said. He looked up and found himself gazing into her concerned hazel eyes. " Go and get her." She said quietly.

"Who?" Phoebus tried to act puzzled, even though he had a pretty good idea of who Belle was referring to.

"You know _who_," Belle said, taking on a scolding expression. Phoebus opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. He wasn't entirely sure Esmeralda would want to talk to him at this precise moment.

"Fine," he agreed, "I'll go get her," he headed towards the door, but paused just as his hand reached the doorknob. "Belle?" he said, getting her attention that was now focused heavily on the _Hans Christian Anderson _book that was lying open on the floor. She looked up at him with questioning eyes. "Thank you," he said, nodding his head curtly. "I mean it." with that he left the girl's bedroom and went to look for Esme so that they could finally work out a _plan_.

**Quasimodo was **twiddling with his thick thumbs as he sat on the stubby stool up in the spacey loft, thinking of what he was going to say to his stern uncle. He had promised Esmeralda that he would ask his master if he could go down and hang out with the other teens, but Quasimodo wasn't entirely sure if the other teens would accept him the way she did. He was even more so nervous at the reaction he would get from his uncle when he asked the question. It was too late to back out now; he had already asked his uncle to visit him sooner rather than later because he had an important question for him. His hands were now shaking as he preoccupied his mind with the little figures over the craft table he had laid out, his nervous hands set the miniature Frollo beside the smaller version of himself in the tower. He accidentally knocked a few of the wooden figures over as he heard the door opening.

"Good evening, Quasimodo," his uncle said, sounding more professional and business-like rather than a friendly greeting. Quasi rushed in picking up all the figurines he had knocked over due to his surprise.

"G-Good evening…master," the boy stuttered uncontrollably, Dr. Frollo's presence alone was enough to frighten almost anyone, especially his deformed nephew. Quasimodo was looking down at the ground, all day he had practiced what he would say to his uncle when the time came, but now he was more nervous than ever and his heart was in his throat.

"Well then, out with it; what is it you wanted to tell me, boy," his uncle looked at him suspiciously and then at his small figurine that was standing next to Quasi in the small replica of Mal house. "Or rather…" he paused, a knowing smirk on his face, "what is it you _want_," In all the years that Quasimodo had been in the tower, he had hardly ever asked for anything, he never asked for toys, not any specific kind of food, or anything else of the sort. He had always been the giving type though, and was better humbled than you could imagine. Quasi enjoyed having pleasant surprises every now and then, like a special treat, new paint, or a new _visitor, _they rarely occurred so he never really expected those things, for he feared that they could disappear in a moment.

"I-I was wondering, Uncle-I mean Sir-or uhh master…" Dr. Frollo rolled his eyes at his adopted son's babblings. "Spit it out, boy," he growled impatiently. Quasi inhaled deeply before closing his olive eyes and snapping them open again.

"I want to go downstairs," he said in one breath, but feeling it wasn't enough, added onto the end: "Please, if it's not too much trouble, sir- I uhh…master-uncle." He looked down at his feet, awaiting his uncle's response. There was a small pause before his uncle spoke up again,

"Very well, Quasimodo," Dr. Frollo said with a cold expression, Quasimodo's eyes widened with innocent hope,

"Thank you, master, I-"

"-however, be warned that I will not be there to aid you should something unfortunate happen. And believe me, those teenagers enjoy causing trouble; I believe you're making the wrong decision, but I also believe that a _lesson _can be learnt from all of this," his uncle finished, the corners of his lips twitching slightly upwards in a pleasurable knowing smile.

"Understood, master," he said, bending his head down in a respectful manner as his uncle left a basket of food on the craft table and then headed towards the door and descended the hidden staircase without even uttering so much as a 'goodbye'.

Maybe this was the start of something new for Quasimodo, perhaps he could finally be accepted by other teenagers and people he never before had the chance of meeting. Despite all of the wonderful things that could occur during this experience, he also feared the worse. What if his uncle was right? What if they all made a mockery of him or shunned him? Esmeralda had never shown anything but kindness towards him, but not all teenagers were like her. Quasimodo feared that his deformity and hideousness would drive all the other teens away, or even worse that they would call him out on his monstrosity. He liked to hope that deep down his uncle wouldn't let that happen, but honestly he wasn't quite sure. Tomorrow would be the day, the day where he would finally have human interaction with someone other than his strict uncle. He was just praying on the inside that nothing would go wrong.

**Flynn, Aladdin, Jasmine, Snow, Ella and Hercules **were all sitting down at a checkered table in the game room, playing crazy 8's.

"Go fish!" Flynn said eagerly to Hercules, who face palmed himself due to Flynn's stupidity.

"Wrong game, pal," Aladdin said, giving a light laugh. Frustrated, Flynn throws his hand on the table.

"I give up," he whined childishly, before slouching back in his chair and fake pouting. The whole group laughed, it was times like these that everyone seemed normal, like they weren't all in there because they had freaky mental illnesses, but rather they were just there as friends.

Hercules was pretty sure he would miss some of the people he had met here, once he got out. One of those people was Meg, despite being super negative, bitter and sarcastic; Hercules had fallen for her…_hard_. It seemed like he was thinking about her every second of every day. She had given him a dose of reality and had taught him that life doesn't always work out in your favour. She was a realist and Herc admired her for that, most guys had had a thing for her at one point or another, but they had quickly given up, seeing they weren't getting anywhere with her, but Hercules was in it for the long run, he wasn't going to give up so easily, he believed there was more to _Megara _than what met the eye.

Just then, the game room door burst open, and to everyone's surprise, there stood Eric. He was looking at them all with wide clear blue eyes.

"Guys," he started, looking slightly worried as the group exchanged anxious glances, "I think Tarzan's missing."

**Thanks for reading! Please review/favorite/follow:) I'm always open to suggestions! Love yas!**


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